BugMeNot

One of the dumbest innovations of the web is "free registration", whch seems to be popular among news sites for some reason. Whether or not you believe that "information wants to be free", there is no rational basis for requiring users to register for unpaid access because the process is so easily circumvented (I keep a couple of fake email accounts expressly for this purpose). In the end, the content provider wastes time and money on development and maintenance of the web site and its software while simultaneously annoying (or possibly losing) its users. I can't count the number of times I've simply not read something because it was hidden behind a login form. That stopped when I finally remembered the three magic words. Bug. Me. Not.

For a quick demonstration, hop on over to BugMeNot and enter the URL of a site that bugs you with free registration. Then install the Firefox extension. (You are using Firefox, aren't you?) The next time you restart your browser, you will be officially free of free registration.

To use the extension, go to a site that requires a free account and right-click on the "user name" or "login" field. The menu that pops up should now have a "BugMeNot" entry. A few seconds after you click on that entry, the login and password fields will be filled in with suitably false information, and you can go right in. Tell Firefox to remember the login and password, and you'll never see that form again.

OK, so I bent the truth earlier. There is one legitimate use for unpaid registration: sharing a useless password with others. If BugMeNot doesn't have credentials for the site, take some time to get a free account, which you can then submit to BugMeNot. Changing the world is that easy.