Seriously New York Times? Sign in to Share?
by Steven Rossi on October 13, 2009 in On the Web
Today I was reading an article on the New York Times’s website about hand-washing, and I wanted to email it to my father (who insists on washing his hands with hot water). Thinking I would be able to use some kind of ShareThis-like thing to email it to him, I looked at the sidebar only to find that the New York Times requires me to sign in if I want to email it.
What a terrible idea.
Why would a website require me to take several extra steps (create an account, probably activate it via email, sign in) to promote their content? If you want your content promoted, make it easy for me to do it. No questions asked.
I’m certainly not angry at them—and I ended up emailing my dad a link to the article without registering for the NYT—I just think they’re missing out on some opportunities.
As a sidenote, why the heck is there no Twitter button? Talk about missed opportunities. Oh well. It could be worse, I suppose.