Stepping up forced registration for online news |
Trying to think of the offline equivalent of forced registration to read online news, hmm … would that be like the paperboy throwing your paper up on the roof of your house just out of reach, so you had to get the ladder out every morning to read it? No, wait, I guess if you have a paperboy that means you actually paid for the subscription. Some paperboys have terrible newspaper aim.
I digress.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) is apparently annoyed enough by the site BugMeNot which allows people to share their logins so they don’t have to register that they have made a new change to their login form, says poynter:
It’s added a third log-in field, asking vistors wishing to read an article on the site to type in their first name, in addition to e-mail address and password to log in, or complete a new registration. This has the effect of negating the fake BugMeNot log-in deployed by that free service’s users to bypass the approved registration system.
Print news has taken a beating from online news. I buy significantly less newspapers than I used to and I’m sure a lot of others are doing the same. Why read an already out of date newspaper when you can go to Google News and get stuff that happened minutes ago?
The answer for print newspaper to be successful online is not to annoy people into registering — for free or not — to their site to simply read news they can get elsewhere without registering. When I have a choice between linking to or reading a Google news linked site with the (subscription) in it vs. not I choose the one without the subscription 95% of the time. About the only time I choose the subscription one is when there is a specific angle of a story or opinion at a specific news site that can only be linked to a subscription site. Therefore, these sites that force registration in order to read content, at least in my case (which is the only case I can talk about with any real authority) are losing potential site visitors.
I’ve never used BugMeNot but I have visited the site a couple times. The site’s premise disturbs me a bit in that it’s based on circumventing a website owner’s system. It’s like a door is locked and BugMeNot is a place that provides everybody and anybody a key to access the door. I’m not judging other netizens who choose to use their service, so please don’t anybody think I’m being condescending or finger pointing, but BugMeNot just doesn’t fit my own values system, sorry. And I do agree that forcing people to register for some type sites/content is counterproductive and unnecessary. And sometimes an open door for being spammed (although I’m not suggesting that is what AJC is doing).
Any readers use BugMeNot? For what types of sites? Why? Why not?
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I use BugMeNot. Mostly to access sites like NYTimes and AdAge as well as various newspapers.
I used to register for sites but after having many user names and passwords, it got so ridiculous that I quit registering at all.
If all these sites want a registration and password, there needs to be a better way to manage passwords. Maybe a BugMeNot for an individual so that you can keep track of all your passwords.
BugMeNot is simple and easy to use and I don’t have to think about a user name and password anymore.
Comment by Peter .Hoven — August 20, 2005 @ 9:20 am PST
Hi Peter - thanks for stopping by. I use a program called eWallet for my Pocket PC for keeping track of logins. It encrypts the information and conveniently syncs to my desktop for use when I’m not roaming. Easiest way I’ve found to keep track of thousands of logins. I don’t really like the idea of any one website keeping that information because they could get hacked and then imagine the work it would take to change the passwords to sites you did care about.
Comment by TDavid — August 20, 2005 @ 9:40 am PST
You know, there’s this club near my place. It always has such a damn long queue… stupid owners obviously don’t hire enough employees, so it’s a pain to get in on Saturday nights. From now on, I’m going to sneak in the back. Hey, it’s their problem that the lines are so long!
And hey, there’s this movie theatre and the seats are really uncomfortable. But I like the movies they show. A friend of mine is an employee with a free-entrance card, so I’m just gonna pretend I’m him and get in free. Hey, it’s not like it costs the theatre anything, and it’s their fault their seats are lousy!
* * *
Insert bugmenot in the example above. But it’s worse than that. The BMN jerks have the audacity to require users of their service to agree to their terms of service (http://www.bugmenot.com/termsofuse.php). If that’s not the height of arrogance and hypocrisy, I don’t know what is. “Hi, we exist to help people thumb their noses at other organizations’ terms of service, but, wait, you gotta agree to ours!” It’s akin to warez webmasters getting angry when someone scrapes their Web site.
* * *
Hey, I find the registration requirements at many sites to be obnoxious, too. And I find a lot of restaurants to be overpriced. A lot of clubs to be snooty and pretentious. You know what? I don’t patronize those sites or organizations, simple as that. Don’t want to register to receive *FREE* content? Then don’t visit the site.
Can’t remember your passwords? Download one of many free or cheap programs (roboform, for instance, rocks the house!)
Long and short of it… I hope the bugmenot folks get their asses sued, and I hope people who use the service find more productive and mature ways to protest annoying or onerous registration forms.
Comment by Adam — August 23, 2005 @ 1:42 am PST