March 25, 2003, 9:48 PM ET
Registration forms make it too easy to cheat
Two of America's most highly trafficked news sites, washingtonpost.com and usatoday.com, require users to give out personal information in return for access to news. Alas, these registration forms practically invite people to cheat, because they provide easily replicated examples of valid input next to the "year of birth" and "zip" fields:
What incentive do people have not to use these example zip codes and years as their own?
If I'm interested in reading a news article -- one that I've actively sought out, and invested in, by clicking on a link -- I will fight as swiftly as I can to defeat any jarring interruptions a site might throw at me. I suspect many people act the same way. (At least one person does.)
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