Author Topic: The Onion is pay per view!  (Read 7484 times)

Primm

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The Onion is pay per view!
« on: October 20, 2014, 07:06:58 PM »
I would love to say this too is satire, but I was flicking around on The Onion this morning and found to my horror the screen went blank, and I got a message saying I would have to SUBSCRIBE! At 99c per month (USD)!!!

WTF? I don't bloody think so! Anyone else know of any quality satirical news websites I can view instead? Thanks!

johnintaiwan

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #1 on: October 20, 2014, 07:44:55 PM »
while it is not quite satire or news, cracked.com has some pretty funny and informative articles

gimp

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #2 on: October 20, 2014, 08:12:47 PM »
Not for me. Clear your cookies and try again.

Pants

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #3 on: October 20, 2014, 08:15:21 PM »
The Shovel - for Australian satire.

skyrefuge

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #4 on: October 21, 2014, 08:14:52 AM »
I don't see any sort of login/registration link on their site, and a quick search turns up nothing for "the onion paywall subscription" (if the Onion was going behind a paywall, it would be news). It sounds like they ran a paywall experiment in 2011, but there are no indications that's still ongoing, and if they've started it back up, they're being awfully quiet about it. Are you sure it's not some sort of malware trying to steal your CC info?

seanc0x0

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #5 on: October 21, 2014, 09:01:41 AM »
Haven't been to the Onion since their last attempt at a paywall, but I just went and took a look. Went to one article, clicked link to another at the bottom of the page, got the popup asking for $0.99.  My 'nope' has thus been renewed.

NinetyFour

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #6 on: October 21, 2014, 09:09:28 AM »
I just went to their site and clicked on an article and was not asked for $$.  I read an "article" about NBC having a "Peyton-gasm" during Sunday's Broncos game.

seanc0x0

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #7 on: October 21, 2014, 09:12:59 AM »
I just went to their site and clicked on an article and was not asked for $$.  I read an "article" about NBC having a "Peyton-gasm" during Sunday's Broncos game.

I was able to read one, probably if you're reading more than one in a row, they pop up. They did say you get 5 freebies, then pay.

TrMama

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #8 on: October 21, 2014, 10:08:18 AM »
Just clear your browser history. It's how I avoid paywalls for several online papers.

Cinder

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #9 on: October 21, 2014, 10:25:55 AM »
Probably not your case, but it reminded me of this blog post I read recently...

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/CanYouTrustYourBrowserExtensionsExploringAnAdinjectingChromeExtension.aspx

Quote
Today I was on my own site and this happened. A video slid onto my page from the right side and started playing. I was gobsmacked. I know this site, I know its code. I know my advertisers. WTH. Where is this coming from?

TLDR; His own website showed an add he didn't put there, and a chrome extension had injected it into his page. 

Primm

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #10 on: October 21, 2014, 10:58:46 AM »

I just went to their site and clicked on an article and was not asked for $$.  I read an "article" about NBC having a "Peyton-gasm" during Sunday's Broncos game.

Usually I just look at one at a time, but today I was flicking from one article to another. I didn't count them, but I think there were about 5 before I got the "you've reached the limit of your free articles..." message.

No, it wasn't a pop up or malware. It was from the website.


gimp

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #11 on: October 21, 2014, 11:38:09 AM »
I just went to their site and clicked on an article and was not asked for $$.  I read an "article" about NBC having a "Peyton-gasm" during Sunday's Broncos game.

I was able to read one, probably if you're reading more than one in a row, they pop up. They did say you get 5 freebies, then pay.

I read like 20. Nothing here. Y'all are imagining things collectively!

tomq04

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #12 on: October 21, 2014, 12:32:59 PM »
Ad blocker plus working somehow?

seanc0x0

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #13 on: October 21, 2014, 01:36:39 PM »
Ad blocker plus working somehow?

Likely. I'm using AdBlock on chrome, but got hit by the popup. I think it's probably Javascript, so if that's disabled or set up for whitelisting, it may not pop up the nag.

ShortInSeattle

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #14 on: October 21, 2014, 01:49:30 PM »
Good for the Onion. Writers need to eat, and shouldn't be expected to work for free.

frugalnacho

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #15 on: October 21, 2014, 02:28:35 PM »
Good for the Onion. Writers need to eat, and shouldn't be expected to work for free.

Isn't that what ads are for?

socaso

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #16 on: October 22, 2014, 11:08:53 AM »
Good for the Onion. Writers need to eat, and shouldn't be expected to work for free.
+1! The dearth of free content has convinced people that they don't ever have to pay for anything but if anyone has done their time and proved their worth it's The Onion. If you read it every week a buck a month is a bargain.

skyrefuge

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #17 on: October 22, 2014, 11:40:14 AM »
Given that the OP and the only other person to confirm a paywall are from outside the US, and Wikipedia states their 2011 paywall affected "non-U.S. visitors who want to read more than about five stories within 30 days", I tried accessing the site through an Australian proxy server.

Since it was a free proxy server, it was slow and intermittent, but after I clicked through a few (maybe 5) different articles, a translucent black overlay covered the screen. Nothing ever appeared on that overlay, but I'm assuming that's some issue with the proxy, and it probably would have asked for my $0.99.

I still didn't see any sort of login information on the main page though, which seems weird. If I've payed my money, how does the site know that?

skyrefuge

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #18 on: October 22, 2014, 11:59:43 AM »
+1! The dearth of free content has convinced people that they don't ever have to pay for anything but if anyone has done their time and proved their worth it's The Onion. If you read it every week a buck a month is a bargain.

Interestingly, the Onion began as a dead-tree newspaper long before the web even existed. Even in that mode, where there were the enormous costs of printing and distribution in addition to content costs, it was priced at zero dollars.

So the idea that "readers must pay in order to keep food on the table of quality content-creators" is a too-simplistic economic mechanism that even The Onion itself never supported (well, until recently, in certain territories, I suppose!)

(btw, dearth means "scarcity", the opposite of what I think you think it means.)

 

otherbarry

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #19 on: October 24, 2014, 08:21:25 PM »
When I was interning our company network went through Sweden or Norway, I can't remember. Anyway the Onion did that stuff to me while at work but at home (I live in the US) I could read as much as I wanted. So skyrefuge is right, you non-Americans gotta pay up.

seanc0x0

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #20 on: October 25, 2014, 05:43:07 PM »
When I was interning our company network went through Sweden or Norway, I can't remember. Anyway the Onion did that stuff to me while at work but at home (I live in the US) I could read as much as I wanted. So skyrefuge is right, you non-Americans gotta pay up.


Meh.  I'd read the Onion if they let me, and they could get a few ad impressions.  If they want me to pay, then I don't read the Onion.  Guess the value I place on satirical articles is somewhere between $0 and $1 per month.

otherbarry

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Re: The Onion is pay per view!
« Reply #21 on: October 26, 2014, 11:45:59 AM »
When I was interning our company network went through Sweden or Norway, I can't remember. Anyway the Onion did that stuff to me while at work but at home (I live in the US) I could read as much as I wanted. So skyrefuge is right, you non-Americans gotta pay up.


Meh.  I'd read the Onion if they let me, and they could get a few ad impressions.  If they want me to pay, then I don't read the Onion.  Guess the value I place on satirical articles is somewhere between $0 and $1 per month.

I think the reason they do this is because the majority of their ad revenue comes from their American audience. Foreign visitors probably do not make enough of an impression and so creating a paywall just for them is more lucrative than having revenue from them viewing ads.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!