October 19, 2004

• Make up fake information?
• You can find tons of real addresses by using Google Groops. Just use one of those and a made up password. I suggest something like "password".
• When BugMeNot fails, I just make up the fakiest of fakey information I can come up with based on the options presented, i.e., I'm a roller-skating octogenarian from Bulgaria. When a valid email is necessary, I rely on jetable.org.
• I just take the 30seconds required to sign up using an email address of cbyukgrfk@hcbgkag.com. etc. Only problem is the occassional site that wants to email your password to you but that doesn't happen all that often.
• I would be hesitant to blame BugMeNot, if that is the sentiment I'm reading in the original post. If you recall, they had access problems a little while ago. That was because 'someone' convinced their ISP to boot them off. A large media company was strongly suspected. People in the know at the time stated that the large media corps were already taking steps to render BugMeNot ineffective. Unfortunately easy to do, since it would be trivial to write a script to sweep BugMeNot for account details, and then cancel the listed accounts.
• slashdot/slashdot is always worth a try - they do get just about everywhere. But I generally just register as a 92 year old male Ugandan.
• I feel your pain. Had the same thing happen with the LA Times the other day, and even after signing up and waiting for the confirmation e-mail, well, I'm still waiting. You'd think living in Beverly Hills 90210 would grant me some respect!
• I've had trouble with bugmenot logins in Firefox. Often the same one will work in IE. Odd. I too have taken to registering as a born in 1901 Other.
• I usually use a mailinator Address, a sneakemail.com address or whatever@example.com when registering for sites. Sadly, I haven't found any alternative for BugMeNot.
• The last time I used it (last week), Bugmenot did the trick on the first try. My biggest registration spamkilling measure is separate addresses. I use my yahoo address when I actually have to register or post my email somewhere. I have another email address for friendly monkeys.
• There's always spamgourmet .
• Yeah, bugmenot's been dying lately - so much so I wasn't even particularly bothered when Firefox 1.0 wasn't compatible with the old bugmenot extension. I'd just like to throw my weight behind all the other residents of Beverly Hills 90210 - surely the area with the highest online newspaper readership in the whole world*. Of course, what I normally do when confronted with a registration page is shrug, and click the 'back' button. They want me to waste time giving their advertisers fake demographic information, then fine - I won't even look at the adverts. And thus I win. Ha! *Respect goes to those US newspapers which have a "non-US resident" button - it's astounding how many papers haven't even countenanced the idea that people in other countries may want to read them. Hence all the attractive, tanned residents of Beverly Hills reading the Kalamazoo Gazette**. **The Kalamazoo Gazette does actually have an "Outside the US?" button, by the way. I just liked the name, in no way did I intend to defame them.
• There's also spam.la. Messages stay in the queue for 3 or 4 weeks. Everybody can read your mail, though.
• Beverly Hills 90210 Hey, Jerry, we must be neighbours. At least we are when I'm not a female 100-year-old Afgani millionaire.
• 90210 - the only zip code non-Americans can remember. (It's always been a favorite of mine - even though I have my own now, it's still easier to remember.)
• I have two that I remember: 95060 and 95066. That's my old ones, and I'm very fond of them both. *hugs them tightly*
• *is also a virtual resident of 90210*
• 1) make sure you are allowing teh cookies. 2) being unable to delete "unsuccessful" logins is a good thing. 3) for websites that force registration before allowing you to read/see their stuff: poop in their comment boxes.