20 votes

All Medium paywalled stories are now free and unmetered when you’re coming from Twitter

Posted by Deimos
Tags: twitter, medium
https://twitter.com/ev/status/1100899021621583872
@ev:
All @Medium paywalled stories are now free and unmetered when you're coming from Twitter.

Link information

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Title
Ev Williams on Twitter
Authors
ev

10 comments

  1. Deimos
    Link
    This is interesting, and complete speculation on my part at this point, but I think Twitter may acquire Medium in the very near future. This is a strange thing for them to do since Medium has been...

    This is interesting, and complete speculation on my part at this point, but I think Twitter may acquire Medium in the very near future. This is a strange thing for them to do since Medium has been struggling with revenue, and Ev Williams also announced his resignation from the Twitter board 6 days ago, which takes effect today:

    On February 22, 2019, Twitter, Inc. (“Twitter”) announced that Evan Williams has decided to step down as a member of its board of directors (the “Board”), effective at the end of the month. Mr. Williams said in a statement, “It’s been an incredible 13 years, and I’m proud of what Twitter has accomplished during my time with the company. I will continue rooting for the team as I focus my time on other projects.”

    11 votes
  2. [4]
    moocow1452
    Link
    So what's going to stop people from passing around a Twitterfied version of the URL to get free access to articles?

    So what's going to stop people from passing around a Twitterfied version of the URL to get free access to articles?

    10 votes
    1. [3]
      Deimos
      Link Parent
      Absolutely nothing. The simplest way seems to be just using a t.co link (Twitter link-shortener) to a paywalled article. For example, here's a (great) paywalled article I read the other day:...

      Absolutely nothing. The simplest way seems to be just using a t.co link (Twitter link-shortener) to a paywalled article.

      For example, here's a (great) paywalled article I read the other day: https://medium.com/truly-adventurous/secrets-wives-4553ec1b871b

      Here's a t.co link that goes to it, which bypasses the paywall: https://t.co/6CaKRDq6qx

      9 votes
      1. [2]
        balooga
        Link Parent
        I know very little about how Medium is supposed to work, but I've read lots of content posted over there and I don't think I've ever encountered a paywall. The first link you posted here shows the...

        I know very little about how Medium is supposed to work, but I've read lots of content posted over there and I don't think I've ever encountered a paywall. The first link you posted here shows the full article, for example. Wonder what's up with that? I do tend to browse in incognito mode, and I have uBlock Origin installed, so I wonder if one of those is a factor.

        3 votes
        1. Deimos
          Link Parent
          Only some Medium articles are supposed to require membership, and it still lets you read some of them for free each month, so it's possible that you're just evading their way of tracking "the same...

          Only some Medium articles are supposed to require membership, and it still lets you read some of them for free each month, so it's possible that you're just evading their way of tracking "the same user" somehow and manage to always get treated as though you're still inside the free limit.

          I get a popup that looks like this on the first link, with the article unreadable: https://i.imgur.com/Zwm1BOS.png

          4 votes
  3. teaearlgraycold
    Link
    So just add Referer: https://twitter.com to all medium.com requests and now you're past all paywalls?

    So just add

    Referer: https://twitter.com

    to all medium.com requests and now you're past all paywalls?

    5 votes
  4. [3]
    Deimos
    Link
    Was just poking around a little more and found this article on the official Medium blog from a few days ago:...

    Was just poking around a little more and found this article on the official Medium blog from a few days ago: https://blog.medium.com/how-mediums-curation-distribution-and-paywall-systems-work-for-writers-f74994ce9ed9

    So it looks like they're intending to start paywalling a lot more content in the near future, and I guess this Twitter bypass is supposed to soften the blow a bit? I don't really get it, since it seems like it'll make the paywall completely trivial to get around, even for non-technical people.

    3 votes
    1. [2]
      talklittle
      Link Parent
      Guesses: More inbound links to medium.com is good for SEO and business metrics? Better analytics via Twitter link analytics/shortening? I feel like I've seen some medium.com analytics-like links...

      Guesses:

      1. More inbound links to medium.com is good for SEO and business metrics?
      2. Better analytics via Twitter link analytics/shortening? I feel like I've seen some medium.com analytics-like links (something like link.medium.com/blahblah123id) but it's not really widely used; people usually just share the actual permalink. Maybe there is something to be gained with these types of link analytics rather than getting analytics on actual visitors to medium.com, who knows.
      3. Like you said in another comment, maybe a partnership with Twitter. Maybe it's Twitter who has something to gain with these link analytics, in exchange for something given to Medium?
      3 votes
  5. asoftbird
    Link
    You can already bypass the paywall with incognito tabs. That said, l read a lot of interesting articles on there and might just subscribe.

    You can already bypass the paywall with incognito tabs. That said, l read a lot of interesting articles on there and might just subscribe.

    2 votes