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The New York Times
#42875 11/27/16 12:41 AM
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Jon frequently links to articles in the NY Times, but recently, clicking on a second article has brought up a log-in page, which left me thinking that the Times had backed away from its 10 free articles policy.

Well, I'm happy to report that the log-in page is apparently a consequence of Jon's having an account with the Times but that accessing it on your own still gets you 10 free articles.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: The New York Times
artie505 #42876 11/27/16 07:36 AM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
Jon frequently links to articles in the NY Times, but recently, clicking on a second article has brought up a log-in page, which left me thinking that the Times had backed away from its 10 free articles policy.
Well, I'm happy to report that the log-in page is apparently a consequence of Jon's having an account with the Times but that accessing it on your own still gets you 10 free articles.

That is most likely due to the URL link's having account and other information embedded which is part of the counter function. Since the article links generally end in .html, everything which comes after that can be deleted without losing ability to get the article. For example, the article "Born to Move" with the URL (which seems to be dramatically truncated on the FTM page, so hover your pointer over it to see just how long it is)
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/well/m...nav=bottom-well
can be trimmed to
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/well/move/born-to-move.html
with no loss of relevant information required to access same.

Re: The New York Times
grelber #42878 11/27/16 08:26 AM
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Nope! I just did some additional experimentation and found that my original guess was incorrect as is your URL guess.

It hinges on your nytimes.com cookie or lack thereof.

If I visit the website without a cookie in place I can navigate from article to article; once I get a cookie, either by visiting nytimes.com directly or clicking on a link, however, I'm at a dead end in all respects.

...more or less, anyhow... tongue


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: The New York Times
artie505 #42879 11/27/16 11:02 AM
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Yes, it is possible to always get free access by deleting cookies (I figured that out a long time ago) but someone has to pay for the services rendered by NYTimes. I, for one, am happy to be a paid subscriber.


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: The New York Times
artie505 #42881 11/27/16 06:44 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
Nope! I just did some additional experimentation and found that my original guess was incorrect as is your URL guess.
It hinges on your nytimes.com cookie or lack thereof.
If I visit the website without a cookie in place I can navigate from article to article; once I get a cookie, either by visiting nytimes.com directly or clicking on a link, however, I'm at a dead end in all respects.
...more or less, anyhow... tongue

It's probably a bit of both. If you haven't viewed articles over the course of a month, then your free allotment should not be compromised. But you advise that it is. Therefore it is likely that the cookie(s) that got dumped into your browser could have been contaminated by getting to the NYT via Jon's link (which would have such info embedded).
So you definitely have clear out your cookie cache (at least for NYT-related cookies [Look very closely!]) and start from scratch, directly on the www.nytimes.com site.

I make it a habit to examine all URL links that come to me through third parties in my own "sandbox" prior to accessing them, just to make sure that they're legitimate. Often there's a lot of inscrutable info embedded which can easily be discarded. Who knows where such things lead?

Re: The New York Times
artie505 #42890 11/28/16 12:55 PM
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Is there a built-in way with Safari to limit cookie storage for specified websites?


I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
Re: The New York Times
Virtual1 #42910 11/28/16 10:01 PM
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Originally Posted By: Virtual1
Is there a built-in way with Safari to limit cookie storage for specified websites?

Not that I am aware of, but Cookie Stumbler (the paid application not the free extension) can be set to delete specific cookies on a regular schedule, like every night.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: The New York Times
Virtual1 #42942 11/30/16 10:14 AM
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Originally Posted By: Virtual1
Is there a built-in way with Safari to limit cookie storage for specified websites?

I use the shareware app Cookie; it purports to delete cookies at intervals as small as every minute but enables me to whitelist specific cookies or entire websites.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: The New York Times
artie505 #42962 11/30/16 09:37 PM
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On the App Store Cookie is listed as compatible with OS X 10.10 or earlier. For OS X 10.11 and later you need Cookie 5.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: The New York Times
joemikeb #42964 11/30/16 09:49 PM
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Thanks for posting that; I forgot that Russell has two different versions listed and that the App Store version is always a coupl'a ticks behind the MacUpdate version, which is critical in this instance.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: The New York Times
jchuzi #42971 12/01/16 01:09 AM
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Originally Posted By: jchuzi
Yes, it is possible to always get free access by deleting cookies (I figured that out a long time ago) but someone has to pay for the services rendered by NYTimes. I, for one, am happy to be a paid subscriber.

Pretty much the only time I look at the Times is when you link to it, and I'm not inclined to buy it every day to enable my very occasional browsing. (As I've said to the guys in the corner store who ask why I only look at front pages but never buy, "If I buy it, I've got to read the whole damn thing!")

10 free articles a month was sufficient for me, but they seem to have changed that algorithm to something quite elusive, and I began this thread to give people a heads-up to the fact that the login page is not a fait-accompli.

OK... I've now realized that the login page enables you to open a free account, so I created one to see what it would get me, and after blindly clicking on many links...I've got absolutely no idea. tongue

(The appearance of the login page definitely has nothing specific to do with clicking on one of your links, and I suspect that it's cache, rather than cookie, related.)


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: The New York Times
artie505 #42972 12/01/16 01:26 AM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
Thanks for posting that; I forgot that Russell has two different versions listed and that the App Store version is always a coupl'a ticks behind the MacUpdate version, which is critical in this instance.

In case I wasn't clear, both Cookie 4 and Cookie 5 are in the App Store and are identical to the versions available on the developer's website. I have no idea what MacUpdate has, I have had enough problems with some of their updates over the years that I ignore them and download either from the App Store or directly from the developer.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein

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