&gt; the value of articles that a bunch of people can&#x27;t read<p>&quot;Paywalls with workarounds&quot; means people <i>can</i> read them. Obviously we care about that—we&#x27;ve explicitly let everyone know that users are welcome to help each other do so.<p>Re value, people disagree about value judgments but someone has to make the call, and it&#x27;s the same now as it has always been.<p>I can at least tell you what it&#x27;s based on: HN wants to maximize the quality of the articles on the front page and the quality of the comments in the threads. Sites like the NYT and the New Yorker increase the former. Repetitive complaining about paywalls reduces the latter. Hence the above.