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Old 03-23-2011, 07:17 PM   #37
Elfwreck
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bhartman36 View Post
I wouldn't think it would be that hard to keep track of how many times someone's read an article on your site, and to throw up a serious barrier on the x+1 time they try it. But the problem they have is that there are far too many alternate places to get information. The harder they try to nail people down, the more attractive they make those alternate sources look.
They'll no doubt use cookies to track how many articles a person's read at their site. Which won't work on the security-conscious people who clear their cookies every time their browser closes. Unless they use invasive flash cookies or something like that.

And yeah... the problem isn't "we can't afford to provide this info for free;" it's "we want them to buy it from us instead of getting similar info for free somewhere else." They have to somehow keep showing that their info is better, or people will forget about them, while simultaneously preventing people from getting it for free.

I did see a nice article that said the point of the paywall wouldn't be to keep out everyone, but to keep out the casual, non-geeky majority; a certain amount of leakage was probably wanted. Just probably not the amount of leakage that goes with "turn off javascript to see everything for free."
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