Comment by AlexB138
4 days ago
LWN is one of the, if not the single, highest signal tech publications around. I hope they're able to maintain a stable subscription service. Being user funded, and avoiding having to maintain allegiance to advertisers, is likely part of why their quality is so high.
Not only that but lwn is one of the main sites that gets submitted to HN all year round (not daily, but maybe nearish to daily). So the audience here on HN has been exposed to it over the years. I'm not sure what more they could do to get new subscribers, I certainly hope they figure that out or how to get new ways to earn revenue without having to go the ad route.
https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=lwn.net
I’m occasional lwn reader and I had no idea there are subscriptions there!
They lock down new articles for about a week I think, so subscribers get the first one, though if you're a subscriber I think they let you SHARE the article with others, so here on HN sometimes a brand new article will be shared by a subscriber with a code so anyone without a subscription can see it.
That's the thing though. You can get all the value from LWN through here. Even if it wasn't for them tolerating subscriber links being posted on HN, the week-long delay isn't nearly enough an incentive to actually subscribe, rationally speaking.
Rationally-speaking, maybe not. I’ve been a long-time subscriber. When I first subscribed, my day-to-day involved embedded Linux and getting the “breaking news” was pretty valuable. These days I still do that somewhat but I’m stuck on a crusty vendor kernel and anything I read about a kernel newer than 5.15 is going to land on my desk in approximately 2028… but I still subscribe, mostly with a patronage mindset: I don’t acutely get value from the subscription every week, but I think it’s a community service and I’m happy to pitch in a few bucks to keep it alive.
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Wouldn’t rationally speaking you’d want to support them to keep them around? Or did you mean selfishly speaking?
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I think the generosity and straightforwardness are a big part of the attraction for many subscribers.
They've always respected their readers and I hope that continues to pay off.
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Rationally speaking, if you're getting value from it, you should be interested in its continued existence and therefore subscribe.
Selfishly speaking is the word you were looking for.
Easy to say until they have to eventually make the hard decision to shut down.
This is pretty close to "I shall stand under this tree during the storm to stay dry, and if this tree starts to drip on me I'll just run over to that other tree and stay dry there" thinking. If LWN goes away, that value leaves HN too. Rationally speaking.
Well for me, at least, it's those features that make me a subscriber. If not for those I wouldn't do it
This is why nobody likes economists.
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Rational thinking includes thinking about the long term.
Super happy subscriber for years... One of those magazines that I open on a Sunday morning with a good cup of coffee and sleeping cats next to me before the family wakes up.
If you enjoy well-written technical content, please subscribe and support them. I hope they continue making the great articles.
I don't use Linux (on the desktop, I use it on headless machines), yet I still agree with this statement.
When I saw that title, I thought the note would be about their "incredible journey", fortunately that is not the case.
Absolutely. Very happy 10+ years subscribed here and I'll keep subscribing.
(As someone pointed out in the comments, the title of this specific post could have been less heart-attack-inducing, but still... :) )
Agreed!
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