Ban HN posts with links behind paywalls – YES or NO?

5 points·JimmyJamesJames··6 comments

Let’s be honest, we’ve all seen an interesting HN post, clicked through and then been frustrated the page is behind a WSJ or the verge paywall.

Wouldn’t it be better for society if the info was available to all?

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No. Good information can be behind a payed site, and possibly, more investigative. Free sites can sometimes be less verified or partial information. I think the goal would be to have the most accurate link possible, rather than many links that only contain a subset of the information.

From the FAQ:

> Are paywalls ok?

> It's ok to post stories from sites with paywalls that have workarounds.

> In comments, it's ok to ask how to read an article and to help other users do so. But please don't post complaints about paywalls. Those are off topic.

You get what you pay for

I'd say yes. If Hacker News is free, it makes no sense to have "ads" to buy news subscriptions. I won't buy a subscription for ALL the paywalled sites: NYTimes, Atlantic, Bloomberg, whatever. If it's posted here it's either free to read or useless

Optimize for the world you exist in, not the world you wish existed. No paywall link ban, although I’d be happy to pitch into a fund to buy gift links.

No.

WP or NYT behind paywall is totally OK: Some of the few quality media companies

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