About a year ago, our local newspaper went from a free online site to a paid online. A revenue generator clearly ... because there is nothing in the paper that is really worth reading. The local rag costs 75 cents on weekdays for it's 5 page glory. A person would be better off reading the Chicago Tribune or New York Times to get the real news ... and the local news? Well the local paper reports that like a week after it really happened, so you're better off just watching it on TV.
That being said ... I still like to read the local paper -- not the paper version, rather the online version. There is a couple of reasons for this ....a. it's quick and clean. No ink on my hands or transferred to the table and it takes less than 5 minutes in most cases. b. I'm nosy. Occassionally they have "breaking news". c. I want to see who died -- I rarely know any of them ... but still. d. I don't have a valid reason -- even though I do support buying local. It's just the thing to do ... drink your morning coffee .. read the newspaper.
So in the beginning of the big switch over to a paid online subscription, my mother bought one and set up her account. Did she ask for my opinion before doing so? No, because if she had I would have told her to make her login name something anonymous -- something that clearly wouldn't identify who she was when she was attempting to make a comment about something. Yeah, she didn't ask for my opinion -- so her login name, the name that would display on every comment anyone wanted to post makes it pretty obvious who it is. So much for jumping on the forum boards ----- if the local paper allowed such of thing. (which they don't ... by the way ..... comments are disabled for pretty much every story because the paper and the powers to be don't want to hear the truth or our opinions for that matter.)
Anyway. After she set up the account, she gave me the password -- because a year subscription to the online version is $7.95 a month or 90 some dollars a year. It's actually a pretty good deal, considering the Monday - Saturday "paper" paper charge is like $5 a week. Sundays go for $1.50 (which is another rip-off ... because all the Sunday edition is, is a recap of what happened all week and then a bunch of stories that were picked off the AP wire about news in other places that happened ....er, days ago -- and then a few ad pages, nothing worth an extra 75 cents.)
Okay ... so life was good for a while with the password. I could login once and then everytime I went back to the page I would still be logged in. And this would happen whether I was checking on my smartphone or my laptop or on mom's desktop.
Then a couple of months ago, I started having problems with the login. I had to login every time I wanted to read the paper and then sometimes in the middle of my reading I'd have to login again. At first I thought it was something wrong with the website, so I called the paper to complain ... the IT guy I talked to said it wasn't anything to do with the paper ... it was because there was multiple logins with that login/password combo at that exact time. Like on the day that I called -- he checked it and said that there were 6 login attempts from different IP addresses within a 20 minute time span.
I freaked out. I thought that someone had hacked my mother's account. And not that "they" would be able to access any important information ... but still. So I came home from work and told my mother that she needed to change her password because of bla bla bla.
Then she dropped the bomb on me ... No one had hacked her account. She gave her "secret" password to EVERYONE in the family because she didn't want them to have to "pay" for a subscription. Okay ... everyone in my family is well over 20 people. So when I'm trying to login to get my morning news fix at 10:30 am ... it's very likely that at least 3 other people are trying to get theirs too. And when there are multiple login attempts from different locations -- they end up bumping each other out. Mid story I might add. It's like the virtual fight for the sports page over the dining room table. And she thought "that" was a good idea?
So, here was my attempt to read the paper today:
6:30 a.m.: I figured that most of the family is either still in bed or getting ready for work and not on their computer. I tried to read the early morning news. Tried. Never read it. Attempted three logins on my cell phone and all the phone did was take me right back to the login screen. Guess everybody is trying to read the paper!!! Frustrated I threw my cell phone back in the desk drawer.
10:00 a.m.: Tried again to read the paper. I'm on my break now and have all of 15 minutes to keep informed about the outside world. After 6 minutes of trying to login, I finally do so successfully -- only to get kicked out about 2 minutes later. Needless to say, I'm pissed.
11:30 a.m.: Lunch. I have 30 minutes. Make another attempt to login in. After being in and booted twice, I have to just settle for reading the headlines and the summary paragraphs of 2 stories I wanted to look at. (which is about the only thing you can do for free).
3:30 p.m. I'm home from work now and my mother isn't anywhere near her computer, so I think this is a "safe" time to read the paper. I login ... and I'm in for exactly nine minutes and then when I try to read an obituary, I get booted again. UGH!!!
6:30 pm: I try one more time to read the obituaries. I'm in less than 5 minutes and I'm booted out. So much for that.
I'm just finished reading all the interesting stuff in the Chicago Tribune, the two local tv stations sites and Yahoo.
Tomorrow? I'm buying my own subscription to the local rag and you can be damn sure I'm not sharing my password with anybody!!!
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