I was able to find the link from the front page, but it's kind of hidden -- https://lwn.net/subscribe/Info which says "Get started! The first step is to log into LWN. If you do not yet have an account, please create one now; otherwise, please log in to continue:". Which seems like a lot of steps to pay them money.
There's nothing wrong with informing people that you can subscribe! A small Call To Action at the end of every post (Do you like this post? Help support us and get future content directly to your inbox by subscribing) would already do wonders! And having "Subscribe" in the sidebar. (If anyone from LWN is reading: use those words verbatim if you wish)
There's no shame in this being a paid publication. Considering the anti-advertising demographic, many would be glad to help support an ad-free system.
I assume this is some sort of principled stand designed to avoid skimming money from people who no longer use their subscriptions but are too lazy to cancel... but it probably means LWN is failing to accept money from a lot of people who would be very happy to be paying.
Not saying they should introduce annoying "subscribe now!" modals, but they definitely could sell it a little harder.
For example, https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/695910/61948e743f7054ec/
It is paywalled for a short period (2 weeks??). After that, everyone can read their articles for free.
Okay found it in the middle of a paragraph on the front page. I think the nav could be improved.
I ran into this gem recently:
What an odd name. Flog rappeling? Flo grappling? Eff log rap pling?
/me loads page
Ah, door #2.
> LWN is, of course, a [subscription]-supported operation.
But I agree that's it's not a strong call for action, and that it's hard to search for if you overlooked that sentence.