Will you register for boston.com?
Registration is coming. And the number 1 reason to make you register is:
We want to know you better. Seeing how many users read a story or do the crossword puzzle is limited research; we want to give you more of the stories and features you like. ...
In other words: Seeing how many shlubby middle-aged men living in Roslindale with a first-grader and a cute wife and two cars and who spend an average of $1.5 million a year on "Kelly" dolls and accessories for said first grader, not that we're complaining, mind you, will result in boston.com giving me a lot more articles about octopuses that run along the bottom of the ocean on just two legs and will result in boston.com setting up an entire section of stories about stupid things that only happen in Florida. I really like odd marine-invertebrate stories and articles about dumb things in Florida.
Full and complete disclosure: I get paid to compile a column for City Weekly, a section in the Boston Globe, which has the same parent company as boston.com. Not that a registration system on boston.com will likely bring me untold wealth. Or even hyperlinked links in the online version of the column. Sniff.
Comments
Ooh!
You got another car? What'dya get?
Nothing, actually
We've had a couple of cars for awhile now. One Camry, one Focus.
Ohhhh...
Didn't know about the Camry. And knowing about it doesn't seem to have fazed me.
Focii though, now those are cool. :o)
what, no Prius?
Way back in '01
when I got the Focus, Prii were sort of like Honda Insights - weird little Lego kits on tiny little wheels. I needed a car I could actually put a child's car seat in, one the wife would like (hence, no Jetta or Saturn), one I'd be comfortable driving for up to two hours a day. Maybe when the Focus finally breaks down, I'll take a look at a Prius, if only because I have to continue my streak of cars with Latinish names (Omni, Nova, Focus, how did that Prizm sneak in, maybe it was really a Prizmus; even my very first car, a Fiat, was Latinish, as in "Fiat Lux," or, in my case "Fiat Biggest Piece of Crap on Four Wheels, Ever").
Registration Avoidance Irony
The biggest irony: I registered here to comment that I would not register at Boston.com. I was so proud that my city paper had a site that doesn't have registration. There's clearly a difference to me between registering here (which still bugged me some) and there. The difference: I've exchanged email with Adam and trust him. I'd prefer to remain anonymous while browsing the boston.com site. Imagine if you had to register to window shop at the mall? Who would sign up for that?
So what's the future hold for me and Boston.com? Why, BugMeNot thank you very much.
I just registered...
... as a 105 year old housewife employed in the mining industry.
OMG!
I did mine as a 104-year-old clergy employed in the aerospace industry in Uzbekistan! Great minds think, uh, alike?
;o)
Registration here
Blame the spammers. One difference between here and boston.com: You don't have to register here just to read things.
Rubber Macfisheries Underwear
You know those nonsense e-mails that you get from spammers every once in a while?
They remind me of a piece from this album that I got almost 30 years ago. (This record, and its companion book the RUTLAND DIRTY WEEKEND BOOK were the first appearance of The Rutles.
A slightly inaccurate transcription of the whole piece is here.
spammers
Is there a limit to the depth of topics?
This is my third attempt at replying to this post.
Removing Registration
The Worcester Telegram used to restrict its web version to people who were already subscribers of the paper (or who paid for the privilege).
Does this make ANY SENSE? If I get the dead tree edition, why read it online, or vice versa. About a month ago, they opened it up to everyone, I assume because they were bleeding advertising money from lack of online readers.
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From the brains behind http://www.bigdumptruck.com
it could be worse
considering what one gets for registering, i look at it as a pretty good deal. day in and day out on the internet, we trade our personal information for frequently a lot less in return. i'd even pay for it, to be perfectly honest, because i'd never read the dead-tree version, but they are nevertheless providing me something of value (i scan the online edition of the globe daily, as i'm sure many others do), and a little bit of demographic info is not too much to barter in return. at least they aren't reducing their free baseball coverage to mere scraps like espn.com did; to me, it's totally worthwhile.
Aye, there's the rub
Sure, if you feel you're getting good value out of it, then it's certainly worth it to register; it's no worse than letting Shaw's know what you buy in exchange for the odd sale on canteloupes or strawberries.