BugMeNot

BugMeNot is an Internet service that provides usernames and passwords to let Internet users bypass mandatory free registration on websites. Started in August 2003 by an anonymous person, later revealed to be Guy King [Edmund Tadros (October 8, 2007) " [http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/the-brains-behind-bugmenot/2007/10/08/1191695798003.html Revealed: the brains behind Bugmenot] ", Sydney Morning Herald, Fairfax, Accessed 2007-10-08.] , it aims to allow Internet users to access websites that have registration walls (for instance, that of "The New York Times") without the requirement of compulsory registration. This came in response to the increasing number of websites that request such registration. Many Internet users find this to be an annoyance at best and a potential source of spam e-mail at worst. BugMeNot itself used to parody these sentiments in its own fake registration form. [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20050401021557/http://www.bugmenot.com/register.php archive.org record of BugMeNot registration page] ]

Use of the service

BugMeNot allows users of their service to add new accounts for sites with free registration. It also encourages users to use such fake e-mail account services as Mailinator and Spamgourmet to create such accounts. However, it does not allow them to add accounts for pay websites, as this could potentially put BugMeNot in legal trouble. BugMeNot also claims to remove accounts for any web site that requests that they do not provide accounts for non-registered users.

To help make access to their service easier, BugMeNot hosts a bookmarklet that can be used with any browser to automatically find a usable account from their service. They also host extensions for the web browsers Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer (the extensions were created by [http://erichamiter.com Eric Hamiter] with Dmytri Kleiner and [http://www.unixdaemon.net/ie_plugins.html Dean Wilson] , respectively).There are also other good uses for BugMeNot, in the form of a [http://widgets.opera.com/widget/4172 BugMeNot widget] for Opera, or [http://userjs.org/scripts/general/enhancements/bug-me-not UserJS scripts] along with buttons, which makes it fully browser integrated.

Opting out

BugMeNot provides an option for site owners to block their site from the bugmenot database, if they match one or more of the follow criteria [cite web|title=Block A Site|url=http://bugmenot.com/report.php|work=BugMeNot] :

* a community site where users register to change content, but not to view it
* the site is pay-per-view
* there is a fraud risk associated with the site due to accounts containing private financial information

Wikipedia is an example of a site blocked from being used with BugMeNot under the first criterion.

No option is provided for users to request removing a block if a site ceases to meet the blocking criteria or has never met them in the first place.

Temporary shutdown and return

Almost exactly a year after it was created, BugMeNot was shut down temporarily by their service provider at that time, Hostgator. The site's creator claimed that he believed the site's host was pressured by websites to shut them down, though Hostgator claimed that the BugMeNot site was repeatedly crashing their servers. [Metz, Rachel. " [http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,64676,00.html BugMeNot Gets Booted, Restored] ". "Wired magazine". August 23, 2004.]

The BugMeNot domain was transferred briefly to another hosting company, dissidenthosting.com, but before the site was set up, it began to redirect visitors to web pages belonging to racist and/or fascist groups, without the knowledge or consent of the site's owner. BugMeNot moved again, to NearlyFreeSpeech.NET. BugMeNot's move to this provider, which also hosts a number of highly controversial sites, prompted BugMeNot's creator to say, "Personally, I don't care if I'm sharing a server with neo-Nazis. I might not agree with what they have to say, but the whole thing about freedom of speech is that people are free to speak." [Jardin, Xeni. " [http://www.boingboing.net/2004/08/20/bugmenotcom_returns_.html Bugmenot.com returns, spokesbugperson says some news sites trying to block it] ". "Boing Boing". August 20, 2004.]

Shortly after BugMeNot returned, reports surfaced that some news sites had begun to attempt to block accounts posted on BugMeNot, though the extent and effectiveness of such efforts, as well as compliance with BugMeNot's Terms of Use, [BugMeNot. " [http://www.bugmenot.com/terms.php Terms of Use] ". Accessed April 8, 2006.] are not known. For several weeks in August, 2008, the website was unavailable again; further inquiries revealed this was due to an oversight in the coding of the software that powers the website.

Related services

*The operators of BugMeNot expanded the "MeNot" network in October, 2006 with the addition of [http://www.retailmenot.com RetailMeNot] - a service for finding and sharing online coupon codes.

*Later, in November 2007. They began to provide their own email service, [http://email.bugmenot.com BugMeNot] eMail, a one way (inbound) mail service.

*In January 2008, they unveiled [http://pdfmenot.com/ PdfMeNot] which is an online PDF viewer. PDFs can also be uploaded to the site and linked to as well.

*In April 2008, they released [http://www.cushycms.com/ CushyCMS] - a simplified, hosted CMS solution.

*In June 2008, they released [http://www.oursignal.com/ OurSignal] - a social news visualizer/aggregator.

References

*Delio, Michelle. " [http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,64085,00.html Building a Better Mozilla] ". "Wired magazine". July 7, 2004.
*Newcomb, Kevin. " [http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3399081 Host: Big Traffic, Not Big Media Responsible for Bugmenot Shutdown] ". "Clickz Network". August 24, 2004.
*" [http://www.bugmenot.com/faq.php Bugmenot Faq ] ". April 26, 2006.

External links

* [http://www.bugmenot.com/ BugMeNot official website]
* [http://erichamiter.com/firefox/bugmenot/ Homepage of the BugMeNot (Firefox) extension]
* [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6349 BugMeNot Firefox extension on Mozilla Add-ons]
* [http://www.unixdaemon.net/ie_plugins.html BugMeNot Internet Explorer extension]
* [http://itsoup.blogspot.com/2006/12/how-to-bypass-compulsory-website.html Video on how to use BugMeNot Firefox extension]
* [http://widgets.opera.com/widget/4172 BugMeNot Opera widget]
* [http://www.lemonteam.com/bugmenot/ BugMeNot widget for the Mac OS X Dashboard]
* [http://userjs.org/scripts/general/enhancements/bug-me-not BugMeNot UserJS script for Opera]
* [http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/23074 BugMeNot UserJS script for Greasemonkey]
* [http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs128&d=08264&f=animation421.pngAnimation on how to use BugMeNot Greasemonkey UserJS script]