What does "this is not a pay wall" mean - if I have to give personal information over, that is a price.

Didn't read - too expensive.

Your identity isn't considered of value to you, you can't monetize it. We can, but since it has no value to you, give it to us for free.

Disabling javascript let me read the whole article without any account nonsense.

Firefox reader mode also did it.

I just reload the page and hit 'esc' a bunch of times right after it loads but before the paywall pops up. Works on 3/4 of these soft paywalled sites.

Journalism is labor

Information wants to be free. But other than AI slop (where the tokens have become too cheap to meter), information costs money to produce. Pay with you info or your money. It's amazing how many people just cannot come to grips with that concept.

I am so trained now, that I didn’t even read what they were asking for. Just closed the tab and came here to see if there was anything of value. Too expensive to even read their wall.

Yep this is what I did as well. I also just close tabs if it ever pops up a "sign up for our newsletter" thing.

Works with any random email, kinda fine tbh

I mean, test@example.com worked so info doesn't have to be that personal...