Reading without Subscribing (Convenient Freeper Tip)

[Sabertooth]

More and more websites now require subscriptions and passwords before viewing their material. As they do, I've found that I don't want dozens of subscriptions and passwords. They're a nuisance and an invitation for spam. No thanks.

This has become especially true of excerpted news stories from certain websites. Because of a legal settlement, some stories may no longer be posted in full at Free Republic. Yet clicking on the link only brings up a subscription window where some of these sites are concerned. Again, no thanks.

Fortunately, I've discovered a work-around, a completely legal and honest way to view these stories at their websites without subscribing. I'm not sure how long this loophole will last, but I thought I'd pass it along. I'll also include a way of setting up a two-step link on excerpted threads at Free Republic.

Let's start with the problem. Take this excerpted thread on Free Republic as an example:

FreeRepublic.com "A Conservative News Forum"

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[ Browse | Search | Topics | Post Article | My Comments ]

Click to scroll to commentary.

Intelligence Official Will Lead TSA Profiling Effort
Washington Post ^ | Tuesday, December 24, 2002 | By Robert O'Harrow Jr.

Posted on 12/24/2002 11:31 AM PST by MineralMan

The federal Transportation Security Administration has hired an intelligence official with database expertise to oversee development of the agency's computer profiling system, a proposed network of supercomputers intended to instantly assess every passenger's background for potential ties to terrorism, officials close to the project said yesterday.

Ben H. Bell III, who recently served as deputy director of a technology-oriented terrorism task force at the Justice Department, is expected to work out technical and policy kinks that have delayed what some officials regard as the most ambitious domestic data-surveillance system ever begun by the federal government.

Excerpted - Full Article ^

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If you click on either the source link, or "Excerpted - Full Article," you get that lousy subscription page. Here's how you get around it:

Open up another window in your web browser, and go to Google News Search (http://news.google.com/). Copy the headline, "Intelligence Official Will Lead TSA Profiling Effort" into the search field, and click the "Search News" button. You'll find yourself at this page, with the link to the original article in the search results. Click on the headline, and you'll be reading the article without subscribing. Nice, huh?

For posters of articles from subscription sites, you can follow the instructions above before posting, and then provide links through Google News to the article so that Freepers won't have to mess with subscriptions or passwords.

Please note that the only purpose of the above information is to avoid the subscriptions, not to in any way encourage violations of various legal agreements which prohibit posting anything more than excerpts from certain websites.

[Ex-Wretch]

I just tried your suggestion. I came directly to the subscriber page (Rrrrrrrr!). They must've gotten wise already. Thanks anyway.

[Stultis]

Templates for GoogleNews Search. Replace the ***** with your search word or phrase:

SingleWord

http://www.news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=*****&btnG=Search+News

Multiple Words

http://www.news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=%22*****%22&btnG=Search+News

[The Mayor]

Thankyou! and Merry Christmas

[Congressman Billybob]

Thank you, my friend.

I am a firm believer in GoogleNews. It came on line just before I began writing my weekly columns for UPI. It has been an invaluable resource in seeing what else is in the lamestream media, and including in every column facts and points of view that have NOT appeared previously in the lamestream media.

I promised not to post on Christmas Day. But your excellent suggestion required a bump.

Congressman Billybob

Click for latest column on UPI, "Ignorance in America" (Not yet on UPI wire, nor FR.)

Click for latest book, "to Restore Trust in America"

[Sabertooth]

I just tried your suggestion. I came directly to the subscriber page (Rrrrrrrr!). They must've gotten wise already. Thanks anyway.

It's still working for me.

Click here, and then on the headline. What do you get?

[G.Mason]

" Obvious use of business reply mail for harassment of the business is thrown out the moment it's caught by any postal employee."

Thanks for the laugh!

Who's the "harassed"?

And if you think a "postal employee" is going to read anything more than he/she/it has to, your sadly mistaken.

Been doing it for years....scribble a ficticious name /address and whala......off it goes, back to give the "spammers" a dose of their own medicine.

Tell your friend to keep up the good work.

Postal regulations my behind!

[Ex-Wretch]

"This will only take a few minutes" subscriber page

[ConvictHitlery]

I hear you, whenever I come across a subscription site, I use 'annoying' as the username and password. It usually works.

And I can't deny the satisfaction in that. I've got a friend who drops those "no postage necessary" magazine suubscription postcards into mailboxes with no info on them.

I return all these "You are approved for this credit card" envelopes, but put inside the papers with no personal information (actual application goes to garbage), and first rip them aroung the margins.

[Kay Soze]

Gracias!

Merry Christ-mas!

[Ex-Wretch]

"This will only take a few minutes" subscriber page

minutes = seconds

[Arkinsaw]

Fantastic. I appreciate it and hope it catches on. Very nice.

[okimhere]

Thanks so much! It's so simple and easy............now that you've pointed it out (haha). Merry Christmas to you both. Neat present, you guys.

[VOA]

bump

[slimer]

It works! Thanks for the tip.

[maestro]

Once again,......THANK YOU!

Merry Christmas A.D. 2002

[Sabertooth]

"This will only take a few minutes" subscriber page

I just deleted all my Google and WP cookies, and I was still able to get the article without subscribing. Not sure why it's not working for you.

[dennisw]

Try this one:

#8

Kylaer  12/16/2002 06:56PM PST

Use the username and password "generic" and you'll be able to get in. It's like "normal" for the New York Times' website.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Oh my, my, my but you is da man! Very good catch indeed. Merry Christmas, big cat!

[Brian Allen]

<< Thanks! That very thing has kept me from reading many an article. Some of these sites claim that it's FR that hurts their readership. HA! It's their own policies that keep people away. >>

I am pleased to say I have, except in the old days to JWR, never clicked on an excerpted article link and have been using the Google route described by Sabertooth to all of the DNC lickspittle sites since the anti-United States Constitution litigation was first brought against the Robinson organization.

And it has always worked perfectly.

Merry ones -- B A