…for free online access to news sources? No cites becaue I don’t want to point fingers, but I am sick and tired of people here who are either too dead-assed or paranoid about spam to sign up for free access so they can check other people’s cites. Let me make something very clear: I am signed up with the Chicago Tribune and Sun Times, the Chicago area’s Herald newspapers, New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, and God only knows what other papers and magazines. Beyond a once or twice-yearly suggestion that I subscribe and unless they are selling my email to vendors of teen porn and natural Viagra I have NEVER recieved ONE PIECE of spam attributable to my subscriptions. NONE. ZIP. NADA.
For God’s sake, if I hear one more person whining, “Boo-hoo! Spoon feed me or I might get spammed!” I will get angry.
Because… What’s the fucking point of signing up if it’s free?! Just give direct access like normal news sites. I admit I’m lazy. I don’t want to piss about giving my e-mail address to something that for all I know WILL give it to spammers somewhere down the line. You say you get none. Are we all supposed to magically know that until you tell us?
I fucking hate beurocracy getting in the way of me getting what I want. If I see a link (with no warning of a signup) to a story I want to see the story. I don’t want to sign up for something that I’ll probably never visit ever again.
Because it’s a PITA, esp. if you use multiple computers.
I’ve signed up for a few online newspapers, but I refuse to sign up for every rag that thinks they can “get rich quick” by making their readers jump through hoops. Most of the time, I only wanted to read a single article that someone else linked to.
It’s a hassle. Signing up for sites I’ll visit repeatedly (NYTimes, Washington Post) is one thing, but I don’t want to have to jump through hoops to register at a site I’ll likely never return to just so I can look at one article.
Why does it bother you so much? We live in a spoonfed society. With all the technology we now have we expect instant information, so naturally it’s annoying to have to do unnecesary work to get it.
It IS a hassle – but I have a throwaway Hotmail account that I use for just that purpose, something like YouCantHaveMyAddress@hotmail.com. I also give my address as “123 Main Street” in the nearest large city/zip code, and my phone number as (800) 555-1212. My name is A. Smith and I am a male born in 1950.
I did the same thing when I registered with the LA Times. I am:
Joe Schmoe
123 Noh Street
Noneofyourbusiness, OK
91191
Birthdate: July 28, 1918
And if you carefully uncheck all the “Spam me, please!” boxes, you shouldn’t get any extra spam. I don’t, anyway. In fact, I have a throw-away yahoo account that I always use for this sort of thing, and I get approx. 2 spams/day.
Plus, there’s even a plug in that makes it so that a right click brings up a browser with a valid username/password.
pssst… mods, I know bugmenot.com is not technically illegal (if it was, I wouldn’t post it) but I’m not sure if it breaks any other SDMB rules. If it does, please feel free to delete this or any of my other posts, sign me up for spam email involving armadillos and power tools, send along address info for me to send gifts that signify my most sincere apologies for upsetting you or any other of the Chicago Reader’s staff, and accept my firstborn (if I ever have any) as your own personal slave.
I think the person who expects the 10, 20, 100 or more people who read a thread to register to read their link, rather than taking a few extra minutes to find a source that doesn’t require doing so is more than a wee bit lazy themselves.
Each of those signups will have taken a couple of minutes of your time. I get requested for singups daily, from a myriad of sources. It takes time. All they gain from it is an addition to a demographic profile, most of which could be obtained from my browser settings.
And when a post here, or elsewhere, seems to want a quick-and-snappy response to their witty OP, registering for the site hardly seems congruous. Even bothering with Bugmenot seems a hassle for ephemeral stuff (and BTW, Bugmenot doesn’t work with Mozilla, AFAIK.)
What are you talking about? I’m using Mozilla right now and I have a plug-in (readily available from mozdev) that simply requires you right-click in the text box and choose “bugmenot,” after which it automatically fills in the bugmenot-provided username and password.
I don’t know, I’m going to have to agree to some degree with dropzone. I think it’s a bit of a drag that we then can’t use the NYT or the Washington Post because of sign up. A couple of choice quotes can usually get the articles point across for the lazy bones. I guess if it’s an AP or Reuters story an alternative is easy enough to find. It would be nice, but I suppose unlikely, if some convention developed on which sites we could expect seasoned Dopers to be already signed up for.