Basically, if all I can read is a headline how can I consider it informative? A news headline has as much evidence as your average Tweet, and can be deeply incorrect through the use of clickbait.

I do use methods to get around paywalls, but knowing that some/most people won’t, it seems counter-informative to solely use the clickbait headline to keep people informed.

  • @IphtashuFitz
    link
    298 months ago

    Counterpoint: such articles should automatically be processed through https://archive.is when submitted and only accepted if successfully bypassed.

  • @madeinthebackseat
    link
    268 months ago

    An even more unpopular opinion: we should pay for good journalism.

    • @Just_Pizza_CrustOP
      link
      78 months ago

      I agree with that, but am also limited to being able to afford just a few news subscriptions. Assuming I’m not the exception, it just seems to be counterproductive towards generating discussion in a community for discussing news.

      People who can only view a clickbait headline also end up not knowing the context of what others are discussing that may have paid for the subscription, and could further be counterproductive in generating meaningful discussion.

      • @madeinthebackseat
        link
        88 months ago

        Maybe the community should tag paywalled articles, such that those posts can be wholly filtered by users not wanting to see them?

  • chirospasm
    link
    fedilink
    16
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    This is an interesting take. What about a summary bot that can post article contents, cleaned up, from behind the wall?

    Or: a bot that would post a web archive link, instead, to preserve privacy? Some instances take a similar approach to YouTube links by having a bot post Piped links.

  • @arin
    link
    148 months ago

    This is not unpopular

  • @yamanii
    link
    28 months ago

    To be fair, I don’t actually know if the article has a paywall or not anymore since I started using Bypass Paywalls on Firefox.

  • Admiral PatrickM
    link
    fedilink
    08 months ago

    It’s really not hard to get around them, and paywalls differ geographically.

    Using archive / bypass links as the post links make things worse: they allow shitty tabloid headlines to carry the same weight as those from legitimate sources by obfuscating the source. As most people only read the headline, it should be obvious why that’s worse.

    • @Just_Pizza_CrustOP
      link
      9
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      I hadn’t considered the second part, but couldn’t bundling the source with the bypass solve that issue?

      Being that news communities are there to facilitate discussion, it seems counterproductive to keep people from viewing the article in question. If someone just wanted to read the headlines and not have any discussion, an RSS feed would probably be better.

      • Admiral PatrickM
        link
        fedilink
        188 months ago

        I always prefer the archive link in the post body. That way you have the benefit of it if you need it, and the source for the headline is prominently displayed close by.

        • @Just_Pizza_CrustOP
          link
          58 months ago

          With the archive link posted in the body, that’s not really a paywall anymore. I do appreciate you doing that though!