Saturday, June 28, 2008

Today I decided I wanted an account on a website called 'Ping.fm'. When I went to their sign up page I found to my dismay that they were in what is known as a 'closed beta'.
A 'closed beta' is where they have a functional product but are still limiting its use to a small group of hand-picked test users. Traditionally a 'closed beta' would be the step before an 'open beta' where the software or service is expected to be fully functional but lacking polish. But in the case of this website I suspect the 'closed beta' will lead to a full release.
Their sign up page has details.

Upon reviewing their sign up page I decided it would probably be best for me to send them a communique requesting access to their closed beta.
The message is preserved below:

It seems to me that ping.fm is all about laziness. A website that will stop me from having to go to the trouble of checking both twitter and plurk.
Naturally this a service I as a slacker (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_SubGenius#Slack) would like to avail of.
Your sign up page essentially gave me what I chose to consider two options: I could either google to find one the "many sources providing them" or "send [you] a message and try to swindle an account from [you]".
In keeping with what i feel is the spirit of ping.fm I tried to gauge which of these two options would involve the least amount of work for me.
Of course this is very hard to determine from the given starting position: but an email is always fairly easy and convenient however a google search can be very unreliable, especially when one is trying to gain a limited resource. So I chose to appeal instead to your organisation directly to grant me access to your exciting new service.

So how about it, may I have a beta key?

Oh and it goes (oxymoronically) without saying that if you ever attempt to charge for this service I will make and escape so swift I will leave an Ankhwatcher shaped cloud behind me.

Your sincerely,
Ankhwatcher