Jump to content

If you want to see anything behind a paywall...


cameronfen

Recommended Posts

  • 10 months later...

anyone know any new ways to do this?

 

it still works occasionally but less often then I hope.  I dont know why but on some sites like seeking alpha it works for some posts but not others.  Havent found a pattern on those though. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

 

 

Okay, so I am a non-practioner and I do tend to be slightly paranoid (okay, maybe exceptionally paranoid). I mostly don't hesitate to install apps from the Google Play store, or from the Apple iTunes App Store, or add-ons or extentions officially sanctioned by Crome or Firefox.  But, installing a 3rd party app that happens to be on GitHub?  Nope, I'm a bit too paranoid for that.  I use my browser to log into my financial accounts, so I have a certain discomfort with installing apps that are not vetted through the major channels. I have no idea what those apps do and what they don't do.  Is there spyware on them that will steal my brokerage and online banking passwords?

 

Do you have any reassuring intel?  I don't mind Outline because when it's run in Chrome, it's sandboxed.  But who has gone through the Bypass-Paywalls app to ensure it's okay?

 

I will admit to being paranoid, but there are a few people on this site who are trying to protect their assets.

 

 

SJ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

Okay, so I am a non-practioner and I do tend to be slightly paranoid (okay, maybe exceptionally paranoid). I mostly don't hesitate to install apps from the Google Play store, or from the Apple iTunes App Store, or add-ons or extentions officially sanctioned by Crome or Firefox.  But, installing a 3rd party app that happens to be on GitHub?  Nope, I'm a bit too paranoid for that.  I use my browser to log into my financial accounts, so I have a certain discomfort with installing apps that are not vetted through the major channels. I have no idea what those apps do and what they don't do.  Is there spyware on them that will steal my brokerage and online banking passwords?

 

Do you have any reassuring intel?  I don't mind Outline because when it's run in Chrome, it's sandboxed.  But who has gone through the Bypass-Paywalls app to ensure it's okay?

 

I will admit to being paranoid, but there are a few people on this site who are trying to protect their assets.

 

 

SJ

 

I agree with you.  One thing you might do if you use chrome is install this app on firefox and only use firefox to read the wsj.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

Okay, so I am a non-practioner and I do tend to be slightly paranoid (okay, maybe exceptionally paranoid). I mostly don't hesitate to install apps from the Google Play store, or from the Apple iTunes App Store, or add-ons or extentions officially sanctioned by Crome or Firefox.  But, installing a 3rd party app that happens to be on GitHub?  Nope, I'm a bit too paranoid for that.  I use my browser to log into my financial accounts, so I have a certain discomfort with installing apps that are not vetted through the major channels. I have no idea what those apps do and what they don't do.  Is there spyware on them that will steal my brokerage and online banking passwords?

 

Do you have any reassuring intel?  I don't mind Outline because when it's run in Chrome, it's sandboxed.  But who has gone through the Bypass-Paywalls app to ensure it's okay?

 

I will admit to being paranoid, but there are a few people on this site who are trying to protect their assets.

 

 

SJ

 

I don't look a gift horse in the mouth, if you're that paranoid go buy a subscription.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

Okay, so I am a non-practioner and I do tend to be slightly paranoid (okay, maybe exceptionally paranoid). I mostly don't hesitate to install apps from the Google Play store, or from the Apple iTunes App Store, or add-ons or extentions officially sanctioned by Crome or Firefox.  But, installing a 3rd party app that happens to be on GitHub?  Nope, I'm a bit too paranoid for that.  I use my browser to log into my financial accounts, so I have a certain discomfort with installing apps that are not vetted through the major channels. I have no idea what those apps do and what they don't do.  Is there spyware on them that will steal my brokerage and online banking passwords?

 

Do you have any reassuring intel?  I don't mind Outline because when it's run in Chrome, it's sandboxed.  But who has gone through the Bypass-Paywalls app to ensure it's okay?

 

I will admit to being paranoid, but there are a few people on this site who are trying to protect their assets.

 

 

SJ

 

I don't look a gift horse in the mouth, if you're that paranoid go buy a subscription.

 

 

Yep, I think the public library is the way to go.  Best of luck with the app.

 

 

SJ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Get access through your local library.5

 

Doesn't need to be local. I'm not from the us and simply found a US library that allows (free) signup which allows online signup. Did this years ago to read Morningstar.

 

Yes, that's true! Plenty of options available.  And besides, most of us can afford a subscription or 2 to our favorite publications...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

Okay, so I am a non-practioner and I do tend to be slightly paranoid (okay, maybe exceptionally paranoid). I mostly don't hesitate to install apps from the Google Play store, or from the Apple iTunes App Store, or add-ons or extentions officially sanctioned by Crome or Firefox.  But, installing a 3rd party app that happens to be on GitHub?  Nope, I'm a bit too paranoid for that.  I use my browser to log into my financial accounts, so I have a certain discomfort with installing apps that are not vetted through the major channels. I have no idea what those apps do and what they don't do.  Is there spyware on them that will steal my brokerage and online banking passwords?

 

Do you have any reassuring intel?  I don't mind Outline because when it's run in Chrome, it's sandboxed.  But who has gone through the Bypass-Paywalls app to ensure it's okay?

 

I will admit to being paranoid, but there are a few people on this site who are trying to protect their assets.

 

 

SJ

 

I don't look a gift horse in the mouth, if you're that paranoid go buy a subscription.

 

Just read what the author says in his doc on requesting new sites:

 

New site requests:

 

Only large or major sites will be considered. No small sites or local newspapers.

 

    Visit an article on the site you want to bypass the paywall for and copy the article title.

    Open up a new Private window (Ctrl+Shift+P) and paste the article title into Google.

    Click on the same article from the Google search results page. If it loads without a paywall you can submit a request to add the site, otherwise my extension cannot bypass it either.

 

Usually premium articles cannot be bypassed as they are behind a hard paywall.

 

Which seems to indicate that the extension just pretty much automates the above process. And if you don't want to use the extension, then you can just use this process manually.

 

Caveats:

- It's possible that the author uses custom approach to some sites and the manual approach won't work.

- I have not looked through the code, so no guarantees of what the author does.

 

Edit2:

 

I've now read through some of the code. The author does some custom stuff for big-name sites. So the manual approach he suggests to try before asking to add a site may not work for big-name sites (like wsj.com, barrons, etc.).

 

I did not read/understand all code, so I can't guarantee the author does not do anything nefarious.  8)

 

Edit:

 

I have online library access to Morningstar. I had online library access to Barron's in the past.

 

Online library access to Morningstar is pretty OK although it goes down sometimes. Also recently it seemed to remove access to M* analyst reports - clicking on analyst report throws me out to premium subscription page.

 

Online access to Barron's was iffy when it was available. It went through some commercial service that required searching for individual articles and then the articles were produced as PDFs rather than granting access to Barron's online site. Plus some sections of Barron's were not made available. So it was iffy and not worth the savings. Later on, the library discontinued Barron's access completely.

 

So to summarize: library access may not be a perfect solution and may not be worth skipping subscription. YMMV.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's on GitHub, possibly the safest source out there.  You can read the source code and see exactly what it does.

 

I went through it.  It makes your browser appear to these sites as a Googlebot, the indexing bot.  Sites allow indexers to index the content.  Chrome intercepts the headers, rewrites them as a bot and then sends them back.  The sites allow you in.

 

The problem for me is there are too many sites that want me to pay.  I might read 3-4 articles from a variety of sources each month.  But I'm not going to pay $15 or $20/mo for each potential paper.

 

In the end I just stopped reading newspapers.  I haven't noticed any change in my life yet, but maybe something terrible and unimaginable will happen.  I guess that's what the reporters expect to happen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can also use airline miles for these types of things as well.

 

Yes. I get Barron's paper version for airline miles. One drawback is that it's probably supposed to include online access, but there's no straightforward way to get it. The information for online signup is not available when you get it for miles. It might be possible to call the sub department, but it's likely a huge hassle and they might not even come through with solution.

 

The other caveat is that Barron's (and WSJ) only allows new customers when ordering using miles. So you kinda have to swap to your significant other if you want to order using miles more than for single year.

 

Finally, order with miles can take up to 2 months to process. Yes, it has taken that long for one order I made. So you either have to reorder 2 months in advance - and then you might be getting 2 copies for quite a while if they come through fast. Or you order upon expiration and you don't get a copy for possibly 2 months.

 

Anyway, it is a possibility...  8)

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...