They're charging for convenience and the ability to download a tutorial in pdf format, it's not like user experience is sabotaged for everyone. Assuming they don't get enough revenue from advertising, it's a decent monetization strategy.
They're not actually impeding anyone from viewing content, say for instance like Quora blurring posts or similar.
Nothing wrong with that, I wished people were more understanding of how companies sometimes need to do mildly unpleasant things in order to keep a product afloat so that everyone can enjoy it. Some of the things on Instructables are pretty awesome, especially a few years ago I would've had a very hard time in finding an equivalent for their various technology tutorials.
They're not actually impeding anyone from viewing content, say for instance like Quora blurring posts or similar.
Nothing wrong with that, I wished people were more understanding of how companies sometimes need to do mildly unpleasant things in order to keep a product afloat so that everyone can enjoy it. Some of the things on Instructables are pretty awesome, especially a few years ago I would've had a very hard time in finding an equivalent for their various technology tutorials.