Previously one had to be register and logged in to NR in order to comment. This was mainly because anti-comment spam solutions were weak, and I hate using CAPTCHAs because they are often unreadable.

I’m turning the mandatory registration off because the Akismet anti-spam tool is getting better, and WordPress has fixed some bugs that allowed fake comments and trackbacks. We’ll see how this works. I don’t want anyone to get a cool idea for a comment and then lose their train of thought in registration.

Logging in is still cool because it saves you from typing in your name, email, and address over and over. I am looking for additional features for logged in users: maybe recalling all posts you’ve commented on, or something to that effect.