The news sites are trying to have it both ways. Serving the news articles to visitors and then covering them up with a paywall with browser tricks.
I’m a bit sympathetic to them — they do need to get paid to keep operating, and ads don’t cover the cost of providing news anymore

I would put that more on the ad networks, if the ads were related to the article, it may generate a few more clicks. The ads are completely random and built off a profile they assume would contain relevant info about me… but it doesn’t really seem to be accurate (this is kind of by my own choosing though).
Instead articles about rebuilding cars should have ads related to perhaps rebuilding cars and not some fucking nutritional supplement or some other unrelated thing.
This article isn’t behind a paywall, you just have to make an account.
“Infamous”? More like wonderfully useful.
It occasionally catches things that archive.org misses too. Also really nice to have an alternative.
It’d be nice to have a way of doing decentralised archiving while still keeping the trust. If you’re trying to prove that a site really said something at a certain date to another person, pointing to your own archive is kinda useless.
I get around paywalls by disabling JavaScript when I read the news
I use the mozilla reader mode
I have JavaScript disabled by default on all pages, I only activate it if I need to, as per the privacyguides recommendations, but on this site at least, it still won’t load the article. If I want to read it I’d have to either register or use the archive.
The owner should release the source code / configuration, in whatever state it’s in, before things escalate further. It’d suck for all their work to go down the drain. I’m sure there’d be people willing to adopt the project and host instances.
If you agree and you have Tumblr, would you consider asking them anonymously?
The FBI is probably going nuts here because someone inadvertently archived the Epstein files and everyone at HQ is panicking. They need to purge it for the Internet before someone discovers that archived content, and so they’re using CP as an excuse.
In fairness, if they are hosting those files, there is a very good chance there is cp
One domain is already blocked here in Italy for CP
deleted by creator
The archive runs Apache Hadoop and Apache Accumulo. All data is stored on HDFS, textual content is duplicated 3 times among servers in 2 datacenters and images are duplicated 2 times. Both datacenters are in Europe, with OVH hosting at least one of them.
To avoid detection, archive.today runs via a botnet that cycles through countless IP addresses, making it quite difficult for grumpy webmasters to stop their sites getting scraped. Access to paywalled sites is through logins secured via unclear means, which need to be replenished constantly: here’s the creator asking for Instagram credentials. Finally, the serving of the website is also subject to a perpetual game of cat and mouse: “I can only predict that there will be approximately one trouble with domains per year and each fifth trouble will result in domain loss.” As of today, archive.today still works, but users are redirected to archive.md.
here’s the creator asking…
Where?
Tackling the problems that really matter. Good job, FBI.
Fucking clowns.
Oh matters to them all right, and their boss.
And it’s not like they’re gonna stop them anyways.
Seems like another attempt to stifle the flow of information.
I’ll take Things fascists do for 400 please, Alex.
I remember when ICE took down Zlibrary…
Why isn’t the FBI doing anything about Epstein island list ? That’s more important than some archive website.
They probably are. They’re trying to make sure it hasn’t leaked onto archive.is.
Because the victims of the rape of children in the Epstein case don’t have the money. The perpetrators do.
Whose bread I eat, his song I sing.
Because the archive site points out their deceptions, lies and cruelty
They don’t need to, they already have it all.
No for real, why? Why are they persuing this?
It’s hard to rewrite the past if someone’s keeping receipts
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/23/nx-s1-5326573/internet-archive-wayback-machine-trump
Different archive, same principle.
The administration didn’t threaten to take down the IA or investigate it or anything like that, so it’s not similar at all.
It’s conspiratorial to think the FBI is doing this to censor or hide something. archive.is is primarily used to get around paywalls. The most likely explanation is news sites complained to the FBI that their copyrights are being violated (which is true), so the FBI is investigating. They’ve had a problem with falling revenue for a decade or more at this point as everything went online and people expected to get instant access for free in contrast to print media.
I suspect they’re going after .is because they are more resistant to taking things down. But that’s speculation on my part. And even if I’m right, what is it that they actually are trying to remove?
Sign in to read, no thank you:
Or…
But they are the same mob so why is the
suffixfolder different? ph, vn, is, md, today are interchangeable.Redundancy, in case of loss of a domain.
Sorry, “Suffixes” was a confusing expression on my part because then I went on to list the TLD’s.
I wasn’t talking about different domains. I was talking about different folders. What we have here is two copies of the same folder in the same domain.
Other person gave
https://archive.ph/TFqAxI gave
https://archive.is/5QFkFSo
https://archive.is/TFqAx
and
https://archive.ph/5QFkF
work too.Either 5QFkF or TFqAx should exist, not both. That is how it normally works.
They are captures of the same page at different times .
https://archive.is/5QFkF is the snapshot taken 7 Nov 2025 01:40 and
https://archive.is/TFqAx is the one taken 6 Nov 2024 17:08
Softest paywall ever - they do such good work, they can have an anonymous email of mine no problem
Magic link’s so annoying though, just wanna password (they’re journalists not techies though is the long and short of it)
Meta
AI stealing our work. The collapse of social networks. The need to pay journalists to produce impactful journalism. Here is why we are asking for your email address to read 404 Media.
https://www.404media.co/why-404-media-needs-your-email-address/
So basically you need to spam me. Because a donation plea every so often . . .doesn’t get enough addresses to sell?
I’m saying it’s a flawed implementation is all.
Purely anecdotal but they’re the only news site that I’ve ever given my email to and I actually enjoy seeing their emails. They send entire (interesting) articles that can be read with no CSS/tracking images enabled and their monetisation is a small text ad that breaks a single couple of paragraphs.
I’ve never gotten an email from them that was begging for money or anything like that, just basically an RSS feed of interesting articles
The idea that forcing a signup (building a web of information about a user through the use of cookies and other browser metadata) to protect against AI (that is gonna use tooling, mirrors, proxies and any number of fully working methodologies) is ludicrous.
They just want to track who you are, what you do, and then sell that data which should never have been gathered in the first place as part of their advertising revenue.
Normally I would agree with you, but given how much they care about privacy (as indicated by what they write about and talk about on their podcast), I don’t think tracking is what they’re after in this specific case.
And they know that the signup won’t completely block AI, but it does help.
You can just go fuck a duck. Archive is super useful. Leave it alone.
go fuck a duck
Poor duck…
I’m assuming the duck’s on top
Poor human. Those corkscrews are not to be fucked with.
Ducks are used to it, female ducks developed curled vaginal canals to deter forceful reproduction but male ducks simply evolved corkscrewed dicks so now ducks never reproduce without inflicting great agony.
I doubt the fascist pin pricks can hurt them.
Friends of tech Bros Incorporated.
Regulatory capture is complete in the states.
Bypass Paywalls Clean is still around.
Bypass Paywalls Clean for Firefox
Extension: https://gitflic.ru/project/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean
Support only: https://github.com/bpc-clone/bpc_firefox_support/issues
Bypass Paywalls Clean for Chrome
Extension: https://gitflic.ru/project/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean
Support only: https://github.com/bpc-clone/bpc_chrome_support/issues
Updating
For Firefox at least, if you pin the extension to the browser toolbar (or whatever the space next to the address bar is called) you will see a little yellow triangle badge whenever there is an update. Click the extension icon to update.
For Firefox mobile and forks, you may get a notification that there is an update but I haven’t found a one click solution so I just go to the repo, download the xpi and install. To install from file on mobile you need to go to Settings > About Firefox > Tap the logo several times until you see Debug enabled > Go back to main Settings > Under Advanced look for Install extension from file.
Does this work as an alternative to the extensions?
yes
Thank you.
That would explain why adguard’s public DNS started blocking it (labeled vaguely as “legal request”).
Guess I’ll be getting around to starting my own pihole after all
You can also use NextDNS as alternative















