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Comment by thimabi | Hacker News Reader

I wonder why doesn’t the Internet Archive require logging-in prior to accessing the Wayback Machine. It would probably help them distinguish humans from bots, at a very little cost to humans.

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Gatekeeping information is not the solution

Why not? If its the difference between the information being available at all, then I choose login any day of the week.

> If its the difference between the information being available at all

That's the point. The solution should avoid information not being available. Requiring login will incentivize bots to create spam accounts and move the battle to a new frontier, hurting real people in the process.

This really only inconveniences people, not bots.

Do you have a library card?

I can walk into a library, pull a book from a shelf, sit down, and read it front to back. No library card needed. Only need one to take a book home. Completely different scenario.

Edit:clarification

Only because there's no way for bots to exploit the system since it's in the physical world.

If thousands of robots suddenly showed up at your local library and started hogging all the books so nobody else could use the library, you can be sure a library card would be required to even enter.

You clearly do not live in an area with a large homeless population. Many libraries are effectively under-resourced homeless shelters. Yet, no requirement to have a library card to get in. Information is still open to the public.

Even more libraries ban homeless people.

1. I have never been to a library that has banned any class of people. Let alone specifically homeless people.

2. I don't know the laws of your jurisdiction, but banning a whole group of people from a public place would, by definition, not make it a public place.

3. The overwhelming majority of librarians view libraries as a service for everyone, including the homeless[0].

[0]: https://www.ala.org/sites/default/files/aboutala/content/olo...

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