I wish these types of sites were not allowed on Hacker News. I'm not paying for every little news site I read on here (or the big ones). I usually click on the link, realize it's got this crap on it, and bail back out. I don't want to read it and would rather it didn't even show up.

For a while I had updated my CSS setup so that these sites would have a strike through on them and I'd go strait to the comments instead of trying to read the story.

If there's a workaround, it's ok. Users usually post workarounds in the thread. This is in the FAQ at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html and there's more explanation here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989 and https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...

The Information doesn't have a workaround, but they do unlock many articles for HN readers. I asked them to unlock this one and they did, so everyone who clicks on it from HN can read it now.

You can use a service like Temp Mail[0]. It worked for me.

[0]: https://temp-mail.org/

I also just typed in a non-existent gmail address and it worked.

Many sites do that nowadays. The Information seems to be pretty nice, but it's super expensive. At least to me.

Some disposable email sites are blocked on The Information's login wall, even [email protected] was rejected (which I found amusing).

But it's easy to think of a random email of letters and numbers, and no further validation is required.

It's a paid site.

It’s a pay site. Logging in gives the, a chance to upsell.

How misleading.

I mean, given the entire verbiage around the sites login wall, it seemed plenty obvious here.

Maybe... I don't pay much attention to sales pitches. Just saw 'Read this article for free" and a login button and assumed as much.

It'll convert well for them at least.

The Information isn't that random (as the name implies).

It's an attempt to create a high-value, investigative tech magazine. The paywall is rather strict and it seems to be aimed at the investor class, so I'm not entirely sure how well it's going because I'm not a subscriber, but I believe I've seen a few important stories that originated with them.

It may be they're a quality site but I've never heard of them before. Not about to hand over personal contact information to an unknown party.

If it were the New York Times or some site I've heard of however, I'd happily login.