BugMeNot BugMeNot.com
by ZetaGecko | 3 Comments | Internet, Issues/Problems
Services like BugMeNot.com are helping people get around the registration required of various news sites. Many sites like the New York Times require readers to complete a free registration before accessing much of their content in order to enable them to gather statistics necessary for selling advertising. For some reason, a lot of people feel that giving a little personal information in return for a free service is too intrusive, so they go to sites like BugMeNot to get a shared login name and password that can't be traced back to them. Holy freeloaderism, Batman! People are way too paranoid!
Here's what I recommend to sites like the Times: whenever a logged-in browser accesses your site, record the time and their IP address. If you get requests from one login account with more than X number of different IP addresses within some period of time, temporarily suspend the account. Don't let BugMeNot bug you.
The next thing BugMeNot would do is to to get it's visitors to create new login accounts and post the usernames and passwords. Then they'd parcel out a different username and password to each visitor using a round robin system to reduce the probability of too many people using the same one in a short period of time. But I doubt that supply would keep up with demand. After all, their visitors are there because they don't want to register.
They might also build a system to automatically create new accounts. The sites might protect against this by limiting the number of accounts that can be created from a particular IP address and/or email address in a particular period of time. They could also require typing in an obfuscated string of numbers and letters, as is often done, to help slow that down, though BugMeNot's users could enter those themselves rather than having an automated system do it.
A final suggestion is for sites like the Times to go on to BugMeNot, find the shared usernames, and to cancel those accounts completely. If enough of the usernames on BugMeNot's list are useless, people won't bother going there to get usernames.
Hosting a website is not free. Hosting a large website is expensive. Producing content for a website can be expensive. The people who provide expensive services for free have every right a require a little information in order to be able to make the money required to support those services.
December 16th, 2005 at 10:05 pm
The whole idea behind bugmenot.com is to get around stupid @#$% obstacles that websites like the New York Times put up. The whole idea of tracking statistics and all that is total bullshit. All it does is piss of the consumer and turn to other sources for news. The New York Times should understand that the very name bugmenot reveals what these people find this whole idea of website tracking a hindrance and put an end to it immediately.
And you sir, should stop defending the actions of The New York Times and other companies. They can still obtain advertising revenues. Go to sites like http://www.wired.com and see how well they function with advertisements and without forcing people to register.
People shouldn't have to be forced to register and then their actions constantly be monitored. Its an invasion of privacy which is a basic human right. Human rights have to be respected online just as they are off the internet.
February 4th, 2006 at 2:08 am
Mr. Antone, I can't believe you are ready to trade your privacy with New York Times news, thats a news for me, but luckily, public is not stupid. If they want me to register, what for? They claim that they wont use my information for any purpose that voilates my privacy. Then why ask me information in the first place. You said people should provide information in resturn of news service, but you failed to explain how they earn reveneue from our personal information. Your logic was completely unacceptable.
Its nice of bugmenot.com to ban all sites that let users register for payment purposes. It only shits on sites that want to make money of our privacy without our knowledge.
March 2nd, 2006 at 4:02 am
Close your eyes and imagine a web in which every site requires you to register. GET IT YET?