This came up in conversation with Slanty2D a few days ago. We were talking BBQ (yum!) and I asked him if he had read the article about “Living Large In America” that I linked to some time ago. His answer was “No, I can’t be bothered to register for those news sites”.

Which is fair enough. Really, it actually takes a couple of brain cycles to make up the appropriate fake information for the registration (and who can remember it really??)

Which is why I’ve taken to using BugMeNot, a service which creates a database of fake registrations that people have contributed. In FireFox, it can be installed as a plugin where, when you are on a page requiring a registration, you can right click and select BugMeNot to see whether there is some generic information already available. A plugin is also available to those of you crazy enough to still be using Internet Explorer.

An interesting footnote to the pointlessness of registering for news websites can be found on BugMetNot. Seems that if you work for a news agency that requires site registration, according to their terms of service, you are obligated to register on BugMeNot by filling out this concise registration form.