Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Registration - BugMeNot.com

Many people -- me included -- find compulsory registration for websites to be more than an annoyance. Sites like the Washington Post and the LA Times only provide access to content to those who have gone through a registration process, which often "costs nothing and will only take a moment." It does take time and I almost instantly forget my snazzy new username and password, so I have to go through the whole process again to read another article sometime later. The questions may also be pretty instrusive and perhaps a violation of Canadian privacy laws.

A website, called Bugmenot.com, has a handy database of usernames and passwords for many of news sites, catering to those who don't like sharing personal information only to read an article. The service is free, but they have a new registration process for certain users. Take a look at their clever registration form at BugMeNot.com:

To help us create a "better online experience" for our visitors we require certain types of users to register.

If you are an employee, partner, affiliate or legal representative of any site which enforces compulsory user registration then we require you to complete our registration process. It costs nothing to register and will only take a moment.

Registration must be completed prior to using any resource of bugmenot.com including viewing pages or emailing the site operators. Failure to do so constitutes a breach of our Terms of Use and non-authorization to use this site. Server logs don't lie.

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