NYTimes promotes BugMeNot.. again

by Eszter Hargittai on June 26, 2005

I found it curious that in March of this year The New York Times mentioned the Web site BugMeNot.com in an article on sidestepping life’s little annoyances. Curiously, a new NYTimes article (scroll down to the bottom of the page) published this weekend repeats this recommendation.

For those not in the know, BugMeNot helps you find a username and password for sites that require registration. This means that you can proceed to viewing articles on, say, sites like nytimes.com without having to create an account for yourself on such sites.

Firefox users may be interested in this helpful extension that allows one-click use of BugMeNot. When you are on a page with a form for entering your username and password, place the cursor in the username or password box, right click on the mouse (or do the corresponding equivalent on a Mac) and you get a BugMeNot option in the menu. Select it and the form will be filled in automatically with registration information.

{ 7 comments }

1

P O'Neill 06.26.05 at 11:31 am

Weirdly, the New York Times is also promoting Crooked Timber, via David Brooks:

Conservatives appreciate the crooked timber of humanity – that human beings are not simply organisms within systems, but have minds and inclinations of their own that usually defy planners

2

Michele 06.26.05 at 10:03 pm

bug me not never works for me. the passwords are junk.

3

foo 06.27.05 at 5:32 am

Give me one example of a site that doesnt work for you.

4

Uncle Kvetch 06.27.05 at 8:59 am

Love it! Just tried it out on the New Republic site.

Thanks much, Eszter.

5

rollo 06.27.05 at 3:55 pm

bugmenot has never worked even once for me. not even after going 20 tries deep into their alternative id/password combos. not once. national newspapers, mostly. I remember once trying to get into the Philly.com site to get an article I was real interested in, half an hour maybe more, nothing. probably tried it 20 different other occasions too, zip, nada, nothing.
could be a demographic-sampling/spyware thingie, where they i.d. the attemptor. but it’s useless whatever its real intent.

6

Slithy Tove 06.27.05 at 11:29 pm

Give me one example of a site that doesnt work for you.

Filepile.

Most newspaper sites work for me, though, using the FireFox extension.

7

foo 06.28.05 at 6:08 am

The Philly worked first go for me. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?

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