Too many people are lazy when it comes to sharing links on places like Metafilter and Slashdot. They post links to places like the New York Times that require registration to view the article. People seem to accept this, but it's fargin' wrong.

There is a simple way to distribute links to stories at places like the NYTimes.com without registering all your friends.

Follow along, it's simple.

If you are reading the article, you already are registered and can view the site. Take a look at the stuff around the article.

Notice the link that says "Email the article"? Every news page has this link. They all want to grab the email addresses of you and your friends.

So follow this link and email to yourself at some free webmail host that you have an account with for no real use. Mail yourself the article.

Check your webmail, and OMG, there's an email from the newspaper.

Open the email and lookie there, a link directly to the story that bypasses the login/registration stuff.

Paste this link into your HTML and you get the story without logging in. Your audience will thank you for taking 2 extra minutes to get a good link rather than a bad link.

Don't be a lazy internet citizen. Make a little effort and people will appreciate it.

Posted by michael at June 13, 2003 03:56 PM