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• 

  Beck, 11 Mar 2005 @ 4:51pm

  
  

  Exclusivity

  
  Mike, you often argue that newspaper Web sites should not require registration because the same news is freely available elsewhere, and they will just drive their readers away. Well, obituaries are the contrapositive of that case. Usually an obituary is only available from a single source, so this is a case where registration does not cause harm to the newspaper. They will not drive the readers away, because the readers have no alternative to obtain the information they seek.
  
  

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• 

  Beck, 11 Mar 2005 @ 4:55pm

  
  

  BugMeNot Mystery

  
  Speaking of newspapers requiring registration, has anyone ever had a BugMeNot login not work?
  
  They always work for me. I would think that every newspaper in the country would have an intern whose job is to check BugMeNot for logins, and then disable those logins for the newspaper's Web site.
  
  Hmm...
  
  

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  • 

    Mike (profile), 11 Mar 2005 @ 5:03pm

    
    

    Re: BugMeNot Mystery

    There are a lot of sites that do kick out BugMeNot registrations... I see it quite often actually. Most of the Belo papers, for example block BugMeNot reg's. I think the NY Times does also.

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    • 

      thecaptain, 14 Mar 2005 @ 5:36am

      
      

      Re: BugMeNot Mystery

      as of today, my bugmenot logins on 3 PCs still work at NYT.
      
      Using mozilla and the plugin, its suprisingly easy, if one login doesn't work, just rightclick and try another.

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  • 

    Phil Ringnalda, 11 Mar 2005 @ 9:31pm

    
    

    Re: BugMeNot Mystery

    Why would they bother with an intern, when a script will do it better and faster? As I remember the story, back around the time he got kicked off his first host, the BugMeNot guy said that one of his troubles was server load from the amount of scripted querying from newspapers.

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• 

  Donald Jessop, 14 Mar 2005 @ 10:41am

  
  

  Is an Obituary the property of the newspaper

  Yes, obituaries are usually from only one or two sources. The problem I have with registration is that the person that wrote the obituary does not work for the newspaper and the person that placed the obituary probably had to pay to get it printed. So, the paper is asking for registration (sometimes payment if the obituary is more than 24 hours old) to view something written by someone else and that has already been paid for distribution? If I wrote an obituary and had it printed in a newspaper, could I claim part of the proceeds that they may make online? Could I ask for the registration information for anyone that viewed the page?

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