avoiding nyt registration page

June 3, 2001 9:34 PM

Following up on a previous thread, I just posted something with a link to the NYTimes, and it apparently got filtered to channel.nytimes.com... which would be fine except that channel.nytimes.com is reachable. I tried to post a correction before I realized the filtering was at fault, and the correction got filtered too. Then Rebecca tried to post a working URL and hers also got filtered. Needless to say, this adds a lot of noise to the thread. I would vastly prefer the URL to remain to www.nytimes.com; perhaps the filter could instead follow up the post automatically with a link that says "if you want to avoid registration, try this link instead" with a link to channel, so that the content of the post isn't altered?

I wonder if the Times has closed the channel back door, or if the server's temporarily down?
posted by litlnemo to bugs at 9:34 PM (7 comments total)

Well, looks like Matt or someone already edited the post to contain the correct URL, and deleted the "noise" in question (though Rebecca's post did contain some commentary on the topic as well... too bad that one got killed) -- thanks to whomever did that.

This was my first post to the MF front page, I think... it figures it would somehow get screwed up. :-)
posted by litlnemo at 9:38 PM on June 3, 2001

what do you mean it got filtered? I tried my link in preview and it went straight to the page. I'm not sure I understand what happened to all those links....
posted by rebeccablood at 9:43 PM on June 3, 2001

Yes, it worked in preview. But in between the preview and the actual posting, the link was changed from www.nytimes.com to channel.nytimes.com. This *is* a problem when we attempt to be good MeFi users and test the URL in the preview stage... but then it gets changed anyway.

I'm glad you reposted your comment, by the way.
posted by litlnemo at 9:52 PM on June 3, 2001

I'll kill the URL rewriting stuff tonight. Sorry about this.
posted by mathowie at 9:54 PM on June 3, 2001

well, I said it better the first time. :)

matt, don't apologize. the NYT is like the Borg...given enough time, they adapt. :)

rcb
posted by rebeccablood at 10:01 PM on June 3, 2001

Yes, Matt, no need to apologize. It was an attempt to be helpful, and that's nothing to apologize for.

I just noticed that I posted "reachable" above when I meant "unreachable." Argh. Thank god for context.
posted by litlnemo at 10:08 PM on June 3, 2001

I will merely bask in a smug moment here.
posted by dhartung at 11:07 PM on June 3, 2001