The journey continues

[Olshansk]

Starting this thread as a place for discussion on how we can continue the journey.

I don't have a solution (yet) but I am just posting my findings.

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I just saw the recent announcement:

On July 13th, 2023, Medium has updated its platform with a new version. It restricts casual users from viewing full article content. I have attempted to bypass these restrictions but was unsuccessful. Perhaps the story will end here. I will check back again in the near future. Thank you for using this extension!

After running into it myself at this link:

I tried using 12ft.io as a proxy (accessible here), but am seeing that whatever gets indexed by Google (how 12ft.io works) is no longer the full article:

[und3fined]

@Olshansk thanks for sharing information. But please try with getpocket.com It's help me read full content in Medium

[BudgieBird]

@Olshansk thanks for sharing information. But please try with getpocket.com It's help me read full content in Medium

Upnext also works as well. Next is to try an alternative that's self-hosted/free.

[Olshansk]

@und3fined I've been a paying subscriber of getpocket.com for years now and contemplated cancelling my subscription recently. Seems like I now have a reason to keep it :)

Thanks @BudgieBird, looks super slick and will give it a shot as well!

[BudgieBird]

@Olshansk @und3fined It looks like Upnext and Pocket have been patched, at least on FF as of last evening.

[Earlopain]

The google search indexer gets access to the full article contents. Unfortunatly you can't just set the User-Agent to the google bot since they have well-known IPs and Medium blocks impersonators.

I believe there is however one possible solution. Since google provides cached versions of websites it's possible to get the full article that way: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Q827lx-O0JYJ:https://towardsdatascience.com/overview-of-text-similarity-metrics-3397c4601f50 The website goes white directly after loading but the html is there. I don't know what this cache key is or whatever but you can just remove it and get a link like this: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://towardsdatascience.com/overview-of-text-similarity-metrics-3397c4601f50

But apparently this is how 12ft.io already works? So I'm not enirely sure, maybe something changed.

[Sparticuz]

I've found google's cache only works if you select Text-Only

[eventanilha]

Take a look here: https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean/-/issues/1061 It's working.

[leviethung2103]

It's not working with bypass-paywalls. I think the medium has already fixed the problem.

[BudgieBird]

@leviethung2103 Are you using the -clean version linked about? Just tried FF and Chrome again, which both work.

[leviethung2103]

@BudgieBird I am not using exactly the version. Because the release of source code only has v3.2.5.0 and v3.2.6.0. I've tried both versions and they did not work

[UsamaKarim]

@leviethung2103 You can clone the repo, It adds a link to Google Webcache Opening that link worked for me

[leviethung2103]

@osmanfurkan115 I've tried to open the Google Web cache. However, it shows the blank page after opening the link. Maybe I will wait for the authors to update the extension or pay 5$ for month subscription :D

[UsamaKarim]

@leviethung2103

1. Which link you have tried?
2. Are you using .crx version or BPC for installation?

[und3fined]

This is first look for new unlock content

[und3fined]

Hi all, i release a pre-release

Please help me test: https://github.com/und3fined/medium-unlocker/releases/tag/v1.0.0-beta.1

[giasraya]

Hi all, i release a pre-release

Please help me test: https://github.com/und3fined/medium-unlocker/releases/tag/v1.0.0-beta.1

it's working Link

Thanks @und3fined

[ffreemt]

Awesome it works! Thanks a lot.

[jamalkaksouri]

Hi all, i release a pre-release

Please help me test: https://github.com/und3fined/medium-unlocker/releases/tag/v1.0.0-beta.1

I opened another article that required a subscription using the same IP, but for this article, it gives an IP block error! Why? Accessible -> https://towardsdatascience.com/overview-of-ui-monitoring-tools-for-apache-kafka-clusters-9ca516c165bd Inaccessible -> https://tomaszs2.medium.com/5-amazing-go-projects-cybersecurity-networking-and-cloud-architecture-7c4b68cc7f26

[UsamaKarim]

It gives an IP block error!

It seems like Google does not yet cache the content

[jamalkaksouri]

Hi all, i release a pre-release Please help me test: https://github.com/und3fined/medium-unlocker/releases/tag/v1.0.0-beta.1

I opened another article that required a subscription using the same IP, but for this article, it gives an IP block error! Why? Accessible -> https://towardsdatascience.com/overview-of-ui-monitoring-tools-for-apache-kafka-clusters-9ca516c165bd Inaccessible -> https://tomaszs2.medium.com/5-amazing-go-projects-cybersecurity-networking-and-cloud-architecture-7c4b68cc7f26

And in other articles, it remains frozen in the same state, and the information does not load.

[txctxc]

Hi all, i release a pre-release

Please help me test: https://github.com/und3fined/medium-unlocker/releases/tag/v1.0.0-beta.1

I opened an article that required a subscription -> https://towardsdatascience.com/uncovering-anomalies-with-variational-autoencoders-vae-a-deep-dive-into-the-world-of-1b2bce47e2e9 everything works including those python codes in this article. However, I opened another article that required a subscription -> https://towardsdatascience.com/auto-encoder-what-is-it-and-what-is-it-used-for-part-1-3e5c6f017726 Some codes in the article does not show up:

[und3fined]

However, I opened another article that required a subscription -> https://towardsdatascience.com/auto-encoder-what-is-it-and-what-is-it-used-for-part-1-3e5c6f017726 Some codes in the article does not show up:

No there, it's bug from Medium

[und3fined]

@jamalkaksouri Please make sure you can open Google cache Try this link http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://tomaszs2.medium.com/5-amazing-go-projects-cybersecurity-networking-and-cloud-architecture-7c4b68cc7f26

This is my content

[nipnipj]

Beta version is working here. I'm using Linux mint 21 and Microsoft Edge.

Edit: I think code chunks are not being displayed.

[1noahmorris]

@und3fined How do I install it? Do I need an extension such as tampermonkey?

[und3fined]

@1noahmorris

[cuongblhs]

Hello @und3fined How to install the beta version for Firefox?

[1noahmorris]

@1noahmorris

It doesn't seem to work for me. I followed the instructions and have it installed, but on any medium article it is still locked, and it doesn't show the "Medium Unlocker" watermark at the top.

[rzsgrt]

Hi all, i release a pre-release

Please help me test: https://github.com/und3fined/medium-unlocker/releases/tag/v1.0.0-beta.1

Just test this and its work! Thank you. But I have question (since i'm not familiar with this):

It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on 30 Jul 2023 08:34:36 GMT.
The content is cached on Google and may not be up to date.

Medium article: link

So, it mean that article I'm read is based on content cached on 30 July? If there's update on this article, is it also update the snapshot?

[und3fined]

@rzsgrt Content from Google Cache and Google will update it but maybe need few day