1. I'll go through the list of paywall-busters, and sometimes
2. just put the title into the search bar to see if the paywalled article has been syndicated. Quite a few (I can't say many) articles are syndicated by MSN, and many paywalled journal papers are indeed freely available from other journals, arxiv, and the author's institution.
In the latter case, the OP really should check and save a lot of repeated labor. The freely available copies are as ethical as can be to access. Either a syndication fee was paid, or the material was free in the first place and some troll put up a paywall.
Should HN encourage posting open alternative sources? No, both as a matter of policy and logistics. You want them to post a sticky "Free sources encouraged" up top?
Should mods replace paywalled links? No. I'm sure HN's filter bots can reliably detect paywall links, but removing them also removes the discussion. Presumably some readers do have access, and so the forum serves that minority. People who would accuse HN of advertising for these pay sites can suck it.
If something is paywalled, and it interests me,
1. I'll go through the list of paywall-busters, and sometimes
2. just put the title into the search bar to see if the paywalled article has been syndicated. Quite a few (I can't say many) articles are syndicated by MSN, and many paywalled journal papers are indeed freely available from other journals, arxiv, and the author's institution.
In the latter case, the OP really should check and save a lot of repeated labor. The freely available copies are as ethical as can be to access. Either a syndication fee was paid, or the material was free in the first place and some troll put up a paywall.
My opinion.
Should HN encourage posting open alternative sources? No, both as a matter of policy and logistics. You want them to post a sticky "Free sources encouraged" up top?
Should mods replace paywalled links? No. I'm sure HN's filter bots can reliably detect paywall links, but removing them also removes the discussion. Presumably some readers do have access, and so the forum serves that minority. People who would accuse HN of advertising for these pay sites can suck it.