Annoying to be sure, but you can circumvent the paywall by adding a period to the end of the domain name.

But you can run into certificate problems.

Nice hack! Hacking paywalls to get content is irritating though :(

Why does this work?

It's a bug in the paywall code. Bank error in your favor. :-)

I believe that technically all domain names start with (we enter them backwards into the browser) a dot and that dot represents the DNS root. So it works in the browser if you add that root explicitly. No idea for sure why this works but my guess is because the paywall is somehow programmed based on window.location or some backend equivalent that works against the domain without the explicit root.

Just click the lock in the address bar and hit Site Settings. Clear the cookies with a couple clicks. Always works for me.

> Only reason I can imagine is some people's here work for nytimes??

I think assuming it is from people who work for the nytimes is a stretch.

Really - it seems like most people aren't having issues reading the article. I was able to without logging in.

A paywall is always tolerated per the site rules if there is a workaround. This paywall has a workaround, which already had been posted when the complaint was made. Complaining about paywalls on the other hand is strictly off-topic.

> 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.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

Yes, I work for the New York Times which is very interested in not being criticized on tiny internet fora.

(“Fora” is the plural of “Forums” the Times’ Stylebook makes us use)

Clickbait maybe, but as with all Times coverage of the Coronavirus there is no paywall, at least for me.

I only see the first paragraph and a notice telling me to create an account to continue.

If you create an account the corona virus articles are free.

Tracking you makes it very much not free.

You can block those trackers.

if you block third party scripts (from nyt.com in this case) it just shows the whole article

If this is what u mean U saw, "Log in or create a free New York Times account to continue reading in private mode.", then u could be in a private browsing-mode, and hence u could not go further than first para. Edit: spelling

You pay with your privacy.