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Tool Alert: Riddle me this - what kills Internet content, but also makes it stronger?
30Jun2004
Filed under: Research Tech News
Author: Dave
pick me! pick me! …it’s when you have to register ‘for free’ just to read something and give up valid private info (real email), even if you do make up a stupid fake name (well, at least i still make up stupid names)…but no longer! a group with the tagline, “Common sense isn’t” has produced a way for consumers of free content to completely bypass the tedium of registration and drift closer to one man’s vision of a bob’s-big-boy style internet… (”what’s the soup-du-jour” - “it’s the soup of the day” - “mmmhh, that does sound good!” - dumb & dumber)
it’s bugmenot.com…a collective effort by the some to avail the many (feels a tad sophomoric - they’ve completely forgotten about a little something called COPPA compliance and that’s going to hurt!)… here’s how they describe it: “BugMeNot.com was created as a mechanism to quickly bypass the login of web sites that require compulsory registration and/or the collection of personal/demographic information (such as the New York Times).” it is definitely not rocket science, it’s just a repository of working usernames and passwords for free-content sites that require real registration…and no (!), you do NOT need to register to use bugmenot, and no, they do NOT offer un/pw combinations for paid content sites.
a bit clunky, very new site, but one useful feature: the bookmarklet. add this to your browser’s favorites and it works like this: you go to nytimes.com or latimes.com or washingtonpost.com and see a good article… then you click on it, and when you’re prompted to enter a username and password, you click the bookmarklet instead - and up pops a window with a rapid search and display of a recently valid/working username/password to enter that exact site.
if the un/pw doesn’t work, they’re actually encouraging site visitors to use another tool (recently discussed on this site, called mailinator) which allows for the spontaneous creation of disposable/fake email accounts for site registration (and other purposes)
there’s a discussion about bugmenot’s potential ethical issues going on at poynter’s journalism site…honestly, they’ve got more problems going on than i can shake a twig at…ethics is one, another is stuffing the dbase for promotion, another is porn site spam in their dbase, another is COPPA, and yet another is that their own site feels a bit buggy…
oh, and as for that comment in the riddle about ‘making it stronger,’ i meant this: without registrations, certain content sites operating without print publication companions or other mediums and channels will realize a potential drop-off in ad revenue (as a result of this sort of tool, or password sharing in general)… that means less money to pay writers…and that equals less content… sometimes registering with free content sites isn’t such a bad thing…it’s quite easy to create your own disposable emails and still retain access to any of the sites mentioned earlier…oh shit, sorry, that sounds like i’m taking a position, doesn’t it?
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10 Responses to “Tool Alert: Riddle me this - what kills Internet content, but also makes it stronger?”
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Karin
June 30th, 2004 at 1:25 pm
Thank you! Readers need to understand that passing out access for even the free sits presents a long term negative trend for writers. The impact is a bit indirect, but it is quite real.
JoJo
July 30th, 2004 at 4:24 am
The constant and unique registrations required of each and every site are a real pain in the ass. Each one requires you to provide a name, email address, sometimes other information and then accept a cookie. I’ve registered for a few sites, like the NYT & Washington Post. But when I run into some 2-bit newspaper from Kansas or whatever, I just bail. I’ll find the article somewhere else.
Similarly, this is also a major problem with everyone moving to forum support. You again have to register on each and every forum, and usually often reply to an email confirmation, even if you only want to make a single comment.
What is needed is a single point of registration that is accepted by everyone. I know MS tried to do this with Passport in the past and got everyone crazy (because MS was doing this). Maybe someone else can drive this forward. This is a problem that really needs a solution.
At some point in the past, I used my Yahoo address to and real name to buy something. My information was stolen or sold to spammers. Now I get a lot of personalized spam with subject headings like - Hello xxxxxx xxxxxx - want to see big *****? and such. So one, I don’t use Yahoo much anymore and two, I never give my real name and root email address together to anyone now. I always use a disposable email address for all my email registrations and whenever I buy anything online. If my information gets compromised, I can just drop the old email address and create another one.
Dave
July 30th, 2004 at 9:09 am
right, but the problem with a single unified password or ‘passport’ is that you would have to hand off control and management to ONE single vendor or organization…and that isn’t a good thing.
JoJo
August 3rd, 2004 at 1:26 am
Yes, but IMO, it is less of a good thing to have to maintain 20-100 (SWAG at some average numbers) seperate registrations. Now what username and password did I use for this or that one? Is their format a true username or do they use the email address instead? What email address did I use? Hmmm…
David
August 3rd, 2004 at 10:46 am
i agree with both of you (jojo and karin) - one way around this is to use the same absurb email and password for every free site, since the inherent risk involved in losing such a un/pw combo is minimal (in the event of theft or if you wish to share it), i’ve done this with clients who did not wish to register for certain competitor site updates (for example) and have simply emailed around my username and password …but yeah, remembering them all is a nightmare unless you stick with a few easy ones.
in fact, maybe i’ll try it out by creating a standard passingnotes username for a bunch of sites and then list the sites where people can try my un/pw to preview free-only sites (i’m not a fan of copyright violation ;)
JoJo
August 3rd, 2004 at 6:07 pm
Yeah, but there are problems with a single user name. Some forums allow themselves to be Googled by spiders. If you Google a username, you might be able to piece together enough info to figure out who the person really is or maybe find an entry where they made a mistake and reveled themselves. I wouldn’t want to defend some of my opinions if I wanted to run for President. So I use different user names in different forums. I maintain all these different usernames and password in a freeware password application that runs in the Windows tray. I can open it with a single click, enter my password, then look up who I am now. :)
David
August 3rd, 2004 at 7:53 pm
sounds like a great way to manage designer multiple personality/alias disorder ;) …what’s the tool you’re using? if it’s good, you ought to consider putting up a blurb in the vendor forum so that others can check it out as well…of course, with the real explanation for why you use it!
JoJo
August 4th, 2004 at 7:21 am
It’s just a free/donateware program called Oubliette. You can get it at: http://www.tranglos.com/free/oubliette_main.html
I have 105 entries under management right now
JoJo
August 4th, 2004 at 7:27 am
Ha! Just saw this story in Wired:
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,64392,00.html
David
August 4th, 2004 at 9:51 am
that was an awesome article! thank you. the guy specifically talked about bugmenot AND mailinator, two of the tools i’ve also covered…small world…and i’ve been interviewed by wired too (!)…hope they’re not scrubbing this site ;)