this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2025
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Unpopular Opinion

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The entitled attitude and acting like there's something unethical about article paywalls makes me roll my eyes. Find a way to bypass it or a copy on one of the archive sites, and post that. Or post nothing. Responding with just "ugh paywall, how dare you/they" sucks.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

People who post articles for discussion that nobody else can read are annoying.

If you want people to discuss the thing you read, make it easy to read.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

Word, brother.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

Let's be honest, most people will just make assumptions based on the title. I bet more than half don't even read the article even if it doesn't have a paywall.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 2 weeks ago

Not every post is for everyone. (And like Rachel said, not reading an article has not typically prevented people from entering a discussion and I don't think it ever will. That's often perfectly fine, someone can offer insight in response to what people are saying in the comments.) Imagine an interesting, long form article written by an independent writer whose livelihood depends on subscriptions. So not a news story with many alternatives, in other words. Why shouldn't someone link to it, and say "here's a great article, I recommend subscribing to this writer?"

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If you disagree with this post, you should upvote it. Perfect unpopular opinion.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 weeks ago

Seemed like an appropriate thing to post, but I guess it's not what this community wants. 😏

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

So the contribute just as much as the paywalled article link. Seems fair.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

What's the use in posting pay-walled articles on Lemmy when 99% can't read them because they don't have a subscription?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

holy fuck, Bypass Paywalls.

But it's always good to post both the original, and an archive link.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

So a pretty unpopular opinion, huh?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It was a good discussion because everyone could read it without paying for a subscription first. 👍

[–] [email protected] -4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

You're not really making a point. Of course, you may not be trying to.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I think it was pretty clear and you’re choosing to feign ignorance because the conclusion goes against your argument.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 2 weeks ago

You can read paywalled articles. You aren't considering that possibilty because you think you're entitled to everything for free, and you think your commentary is so valuable that it should always be made available to you because otherwise you can't participate? It isn't. If that's not your point, what is it?

We all block advirtisements, so if the pervasive attitude towards paying for written articles is hostile, what are we left with? I guess AI can replace human writers and that will be just fine.