bug me not

[solipsistnation]

bugmenot.com

...tracks logins to allow you to bypass compulsory web site registration for sites like nytimes.com and other newspapers and so on... About time.

Comments

[mr-teem.livejournal.com]

It doesn't track anything--it's a glorified free password list for people who are inclined to but too lazy to use Mailinator (http://www.mailinator.com/).

What a crock. Newspapers live on advertising revenue. If they can't point to something to tell them how many unique users they get, they in turn can't solicit ads which means that the "free" features they provide either get dropped or go into an actual "pay" portion of the site.

"Contrary to the spirit of the web," my left nut. Just a bunch of "Information should be free--as free as air!" cyber-hippies.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

What a great way to increase spam... automatically generate mailboxes when spam arrives for them! I'm waiting for a spammer to do a dictionary attack on mailinator. And no password needed, so you can read anyone's e-mail. Brilliant!

I wonder how much of a newspaper's revenue comes from online advertising. I also wonder how much money newspaper Web sites that DON'T use compulsory registration lose (because they MUST be losing money!) versus sites that do.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

There are any number of ways to track people that don't require me to enter all kinds of ridiculous information every time I want to read an article somebody linked to. Cookies and all kinds of things, for example.

I usually just make up a lot of random information (I usually like to pretend to be a centegenarian woman living in Alaska), but this is more useful. I don't care about getting spam (which is what mailinator appears to be trying to deal with). I just don't want to give my life's story to read an article or two every couple of months.

Mailinator looks pretty ridiculous too.

[krellis.livejournal.com]

And those sites DO use cookies. I set up an NYTimes account once and have never had to give them any information since, except when changing browsers/computers. I don't see how it's that big of a deal. I've never encountered a site that I had any desire to use that required login and didn't store it persistently.

[krellis.livejournal.com]

I like their completely invalid WHOIS data for bugmenot.com, too.

[mr-teem.livejournal.com]

Mailinator is a much more ethical solution than BugMeNot. Mailinator is what I used to get my LATimes.com account. Did that months ago and now I can link to there from any of the machines I own since the cookie's been set. I gave them what they wanted--a unique but not specific visitor tag--and they give me what I want--their content via the web. Transaction complete.