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Paid credentials work, yes.

Free credentials temporarily do, but only until someone teachers crawlers to AI-automate signups. Forum spammers already figured this out a long time ago.

A while back someone from Financial Times commented on HN about how it was confusing that we were all so hostile to their free registration required article paywall. The HN community view on their registration requirement suggests that free authentication does not work and has not for some time; has that viewpoint changed in recent years?



> Free credentials temporarily do, but only until someone teachers crawlers to AI-automate signups. Forum spammers already figured this out a long time ago.

Forum spamming is a solved problem, isn't it? I mean, do you see any spam here on HN?

> The HN community view on their registration requirement suggests that free authentication does not work and has not for some time; has that viewpoint changed in recent years?

I don't think there is such a thing as a "HN community view". Are there meetings to agree on a consensus on important topics? Or were you trying to pull an appeal to authority?


> Forum spamming is a solved problem, isn't it? I mean, do you see any spam here on HN?

Yes, I’ve reported two or three this past week or so by emailing the mods. Do you browse /new often? What do you think makes HN a spam-free place?

> I don't think there is such a thing as a "HN community view".

Noted.




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