When you say &quot;This is not acceptable&quot;, what do you mean?  If a link is accessible from Germany without a proxy but not the US, would that be acceptable?  What if it&#x27;s accessible to you in Germany and me in the US without a proxy, but not to someone in China unless they use a proxy?<p>So maybe it&#x27;s OK to require a proxy from China?  But what if a user in North Korea can&#x27;t access a proxy? Should that link also be prohibited on HN?  How is HN supposed to know what consists of an acceptable workaround, and what does not? Are the standards different for different countries?<p>It seems simpler to assume that the articles that get upvotes have people who want to read them, and that if people want to read the article everyone is raving about, they will find a way.  It&#x27;s Hacker News after all.