Hit me once, hit me twice

Today we launched our website registration system. Haven't noticed it yet? That's because we set it up to give people two unimpeded visits to the site before forcing them to register.

We did this so that new readers can take a cruise around before deciding if the few extra seconds it takes to sign up is worth the trouble.

Regular readers will see the registration form pop up when they come back for their third visit. Depending on how your web brower is set up, your first visit would be counted if you hit on any article pages after the front page. Your second visit would take place if you leave the site and then come back more than an hour later.

I have received a few emails from readers about this change. A couple of them asked if this was an effort to one day charge readers for access. I can say positively this is not the case. Charging for access to the online editon has not proven viable for any newspaper outside of the Wall Street Journal. For the foreseeable future, we aren't going down that path.

Someone also mentioned that registration would make it impossible to link to stories on the site from your own site. But this is not so. You can freely link to any story on the site.

If you have any other questions or comments, please send them my way. Thanks.