[snowwrestler]

I asked last year and was told 404 is the source of too many copycat low quality posts and they have a paywall. In the year since, a bunch of their original reporting has hit the front page and driven interesting discussions.

[abraham]

Just to clarify for anyone reading. 404 does not have a paywall. They have an account wall. Some articles require you to be signed into a free account to read.

[snowwrestler]

For comparison, the Wall Street Journal does have a paywall but is not a banned site.

[metadope]

And 404 is also not banned, right?

As a noob here on HN, that's what I gathered from your previous comment:

> In the year since, a bunch of their original reporting has hit the front page

So, a year ago, before my time, 404 media was moderated in a way that seemed like a ban, but now it no longer appears to be shadowbanned, is that what I'm learning?

[tastyface]

If a 404media article makes it to the front page, it's because enough people happened to vouch a [dead] article, which is quite unusual and involves a lot of luck (since most people don't have showdead enabled). Nothing has changed on the mod side as far as I'm aware.

[mrguyorama]

Don't forget that complaining about paywalls is actually against the rules. So how did the site get that ban in the first place?