The website www.BugMeNot.com maintains a list of user names and passwords to free websites that annoyingly force users to register for access to the account. The example they use is The New York Times. Just type in the URL of the website you wish to access and BugMeNot will display a user-contributed faux username/password that allows access.

And to answer the question of "Why not just register?", BugMeNot's FAQ explains:

• It's a breach of privacy.


• Sites don't have a great track record with the whole spam thing.


• It's contrary to the fundamental spirit of the net. Just ask Google.


• It's pointless due to the significant percentage of users who enter fake demographic details anyway.


• It's a waste of time.


• It's annoying as hell.


• Imagine if every site required registration to access content.

Comments (0) | PermaLink | Category: Web Sites
Posted by John DeNardo at Thursday March 11, 2004 at 10:06 PM
© 2008 SF Signal