First, buddy...

I think this is intentionally obfuscated, in the hopes that you will accidentally sign up...

Posted by: Tim at October 28, 2005 12:19 AM

the question mark is the strangest part, and makes me think maybe some engrish or extreme intoxication was involved.

Posted by: gmangw at October 28, 2005 12:22 AM

What's more, it looks like the second sentence directly contradicts the third sentence.

Incidentally, the text has been fixed since this was posted.

Posted by: Josh Z. at October 28, 2005 12:37 AM

Whatever the opposite of the default is. :P

Posted by: Ben Wilhelm at October 28, 2005 01:54 AM

i'm with tim on this one. they do it on purpose so that they get people to accidentally sign up. instead of a 1% sign up its a 50% sign up.

Posted by: yoyo at October 28, 2005 08:22 AM

Definitely broken ( and now, seemingly, fixed). To avoid all that junk mail, I set up an account on a webmail site and use that address. I never check it - it just goes there and gets deleted when full, I guess.

Posted by: Lady Jane at October 28, 2005 08:39 AM

Looks kind of like the last seperatist referendum question.

Posted by: citizen of quebec at October 28, 2005 10:28 AM

Broken. If I had to guess, it looks like someone forgot to include the other check box after, "Please check this box if you do not want to receive this?" No idea about the question mark.

Posted by: Ron Mexico at October 28, 2005 10:54 AM

Ron, if they intended there to be two checkboxes it would have also been broken, because then they should be radio buttons? (intentionally misused question mark)

Posted by: Matt at October 28, 2005 11:14 AM

If you ever need a quick disposable one-time email address for anything like this, use [anything]@pookmail.com (replacing '[anything]' with your name or whatever).

Then, go to www.pookmail.com, log in with whatever you used for [anything] (no password needed) and you can view the email sent so you can click the confirmation link or whatever.

Ta-da - you never have to give your proper email address out ever again.

Bear in mind Pookmail can be accessed by anyone so don't be stupid and use it for online banking or whatever. All emails sent to Pookmail are deleted after 24 hours anyway.

Hope this is of help!

Posted by: Dan at October 28, 2005 11:50 AM

Lady Jane (and everyone else), there's a free service called pookmail.com that's been set up for these situations. It's a "disposable email account" that requires no signup or other personal info. You just make up an email address (like goaway@pookmail.com or leavemealone@pookmail.com or something ruder if you want) and it acts as a valid address for 24 hours. You can even go to www.pookmail.com and read emails sent to that address, so you can reply to confirmations, retrieve passwords, etc. I've been using it for about six months, and can vouch that there are no strings attached. Check it out.

Posted by: E.T. at October 28, 2005 11:50 AM

Get out of my mind, Dan.

Posted by: E.T. at October 28, 2005 11:52 AM

www.mailinator.com has the same type of service, I love it

Posted by: Michael at October 28, 2005 12:20 PM

I'm thinking the question mark is actually supposed to be another check box and somebody messed up. Either way, broken.

Posted by: ambrocked at October 28, 2005 09:26 PM

This is broken. And they didn't just accidentally do this either. This was intentional. In short, someone is feeling sadistic. They're broken too.

Posted by: Sido at October 28, 2005 10:50 PM

Another junk e-mail service is spamgourmet.

http://www.spamgourmet.com/

Posted by: The Pondermatic at October 29, 2005 08:37 PM

Two people having the same thought at the same time, E.T.?

George Orwell would call that 'Doublethink'...

Posted by: Dan at October 31, 2005 03:53 AM

Back to something........

I guess if you do or don't check the box you get spam. Spam spam spam spam spam......is nasty.

Posted by: Jess at November 11, 2005 10:42 PM