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Turning Up The Heat On On-Line Registration

Posted by timothy on from the it's-easy-and-it's-required dept.

Saeed al-Sahaf writes "CNN is running a story on the growing number of print newspapers with on-line editions that are requiring registration. Apparently there are some folks out there who don't like this 'feature'! I found a few things interesting about the story: Privacy groups say it's a dangerous practice and promotes spam; I didn't realize people put real personal info into these things (110-year-old surgeons from Bulgaria named Mickey Mouse). About 15 to 20 percent of the registrations for the Philadelphia Inquirer turned out to be bogus, a figure that was much lower than I would have thought. Also mentioned in the story is a web site called BugMeNot.com, which lists 'communal' logins and passwords for on-line newspapers."

6 of 464 comments (clear)

  1. I'm disappointed in Taco by DCowern · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you go to BugMeNot.com and enter http://slashdot.org, you get:

    CmdrTaco
    password

    Sheesh, I'd expect better from him! ;-)

  2. I love online regestration.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...but I imagine that 'joe@aol.com' probably doesn't...

    1. Re:I love online regestration.... by fdiskne1 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Heck, I just use support@doubleclick.com .

      --
      But why is the rum gone?
    2. Re:I love online regestration.... by garcia · · Score: 4, Funny

      I was using abuse@comcast.com. They ignore my emails to them about all the worms hitting my boxes daily so I figured they just sent everything to /dev/null. My spam won't hurt.

  3. philadelphia inquirer bogus percentage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    About 15 to 20 percent of the registrations for the Philadelphia Inquirer turned out to be bogus

    That percentage has just risen :)

  4. I love when the community comes together by gwoodrow · · Score: 4, Funny

    When I was a kid, I was always fascinated by how drivers on highways/interstates could be so mean to each other (cutting each other off, flicking each other off, etc...), and yet still occasionally help a brutha' out by flicking their headlights to warn of a sneaky hidden cop.

    I've got a bit of hippy in me thanks to a 70s generation mom, so I love to see any example of people banding together to fight annoying corporate trends like login requirements for free content. I previously had not heard of BugMeNot.com, but now I'm going to stick a link up on my site to spread it around a little more - as well as adding the firefox extension.

    Of course, I suppose I should disable logins for my site in order to avoid hypocrisy/irony... although that'll seriously cut into my meager revenue... :)