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Huffington Post Fights Back Against NY Times Paywall

Posted by Soulskill on from the defending-online-freedom dept.

As you may recall, we've recently discussed celebrated lamented deinstitutionalized the New York Times' stumbling efforts to implement a paywall on their website. Now , ; ! € in an effort to combat the growing trend of hiding content behind annoying attempts at monetization, the Huffington Post has taken a strong stand against the paywall by setting up a paywall of their own that blocks out NY Times employees jerks liberals Krugmans . "On HuffingtonPost.com you can view the first 6 letters of each word at no charge (including slideshows of adorable kittens). After 6 letters, we will ask you to become a digital vassal subscriber hostage clock . You may choose to subscribe to see the rest of each word individually, or choose a package to access all words of more than 6 letters." Some dudes Analysts Talking heads Mutants expect this to be a particularly devastating response, given how much of the HuffPo's content is appropriated and re-used by the NY Times.

15 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. Pfft. by pushing-robot · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's why I read Fox News. They only use a handful of words over 6 letters, and those few are used so often it's easy to figure them out.

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    1. Re:Pfft. by Shotgun · · Score: 2

      Fox News bashing. We haven't seen that on Slashdot before, now have we? How quaint.

      --
      Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
      Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
  2. New Layout? by IonOtter · · Score: 2

    Meh. I liked the pink OMGPONIES better.

    --
    [End Of Line]
  3. What is this? by GoNINzo · · Score: 4, Funny

    I cannot believ* that the world has come down to this.

    I wouldn** imagin* that any other compan** would ever try this terrib*** idea.

    --
    Gonzo Granzeau
    "Nothing the god of biomechanics wouldn't let you into heaven for.." -Roy Batty
  4. Please stop! by Timmmm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Isn't the idea of April fools to ... fool people? This is just sad.

    1. Re:Please stop! by Shotgun · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It could be that the /. editors have misunderstood and they think the purpose is to be a fool...something they try to excel at every year.

      --
      Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
      Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
    2. Re:Please stop! by swb · · Score: 3, Insightful

      A long time ago Slashdot posted a funny fake story on April Fools and it was pretty good and fooled some people.

      Since then, it's been an attempt to go more over the time every year and after about the second year it was beyond annoying.

    3. Re:Please stop! by Anubis+IV · · Score: 2

      Isn't the idea of April fools to ... fool people? This is just sad.

      Joke's on you?

    4. Re:Please stop! by jfengel · · Score: 2

      Everybody knows that the AFJs are coming, so actually fooling people isn't very effective. Besides, when you've got a hundred thousand people coming to the web site, somebody's going to shout April Fool pretty fast.

      So they tell jokes. You know they're jokes. Some of them are pretty funny. The best ones usually have a point. Huffington is joking about the New York Times paywall. ThinkGeek is joking about how annoying 3D movies can be.

      I consider that a far higher standard than the "Hey, I just got a call, your mom is dead... APRIL FOOL" style practical joke. I don't think gullibility is terribly funny, especially not when the way to invoke gullibility is by being so tasteless nobody would imagine you would joke about it.

      So lighten up. If you get a smile out of it, then it's a win. If not, remember that it's only 24 hours out of the year, and a lot of other people enjoy it.

    5. Re:Please stop! by Timmmm · · Score: 2

      All the slashdot jokes are as obvious as "hey your mum is dead". Partly because they're totally implausible, and partly because EVERY SINGLE STORY is an April fool.

      What they *should* do, is post real news stories, and have ONE PLAUSIBLE April fool. For example "Oracle renames itself as Sun" or "Digg bought by Google", or "Duke Nukem Forever cancelled."

  5. Re:Oh, When . . by sumdumass · · Score: 2

    Generally, it ends on April second.

    Unfortunately, the memo usually goes out on the night of march 31st so people don't get it until April 1st when they return and think it's another April's Fools Day trick to stop them from tricking people.

  6. Re:NYT had it coming by darth+dickinson · · Score: 2

    Zing indeed. I haven't seen any major source deride the war in Libya until now.

  7. ha by geekoid · · Score: 2

    "given how much of the HuffPo's content is appropriated and re-used by the NY Times."

    that explains why the quality of the NY Times has been declining.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  8. Re:Oh, When . . by rossdee · · Score: 2

    Yeah, but midnight which time zone? GMT? EDT ? PDT ? Or do we have to wait for Hawaii

  9. So, a freeloading blog site whines... by rtilghman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    About a paywall that prevents them from being a free-loading blog site?

    Huffington Post, yet another vacuus shell that produces no value, delivers no real content, and can't survive as a pay business. How much did AOL pay again?

    -rt