Browser-ish question

[lykaon78]

Not really sure where this belongs so I'm putting in this forum.

So my former hometown's newspaper has adopted a pay to read format but they must allow a certain number of articles a week. At some point, after clicking so many articles I'm redirected to a subscribe now link. However, if I switch browsers (or even open the incognito link in Chrome) I can read the article I was just denied.

How is this tracked and can I bypass it?

 

[lxskllr]

Probably with cookies. Get rid of the cookies, and get rid of the restriction. I'm all for the free exchange of information, but if you value the information you're getting, you should consider supporting their effort. If you think their subscription rates are too high, see if you can give them money some other way. At least turn on ads when you go to the site.

Information should always be libre, but not always gratis. Continued quality journalism costs money, and if that money can't be made, the quality will drop, or the source will disappear.

 

[lykaon78]

I agree... just can't justify $20/month for a handful of articles from my old hometown's paper when I'm spending the same on my local newspaper.

Tried clearing cookies and that doesn't seem to do it.

 

[Leros]

I would say that they might be tracking IP/user-agent combinations (I've seen a few sites do this although it seems to be rare), but you said you can view articles in an incognito window. An incognito window should give you the same results as if you cleared your cookies.