Its a start.

Hungry Joe,

We don't really want to ban real "guest" posts, but unfortunately it is difficult (though not entirely impossible) to tell a legitimate "guest" post from an "anonymous" one (i.e. someone posting under an alias something they know they shouldn't).

We've gotten along for so many years with only occasional trouble from "trolls". It is unfortunate to be pushed to these measures now, but lately the "trolls" aren't the same as the ones of old. Sadly, way too many of the "anonymous" posts appear to be coming from registered members that have some kind of agenda, or perhaps just an odd (insert other adjectives here) need to stir up trouble.

So, if the abusive posts continue, they will no longer be anonymous; and, with guest posts disabled, we can now effectively block a registered member from posting if necessary.

Note: before the "new format", there was no registration, no passwords, no login, and anybody could post as anybody they wanted; so, we've come a long way, but there's more to go.

Confirming registration is not always easy -- sometimes, we have difficulty getting the confirmation email through. This can be as simple as getting trapped as "spam"; or, due to more "interesting" difficulties which arise occasionally. Now that registration is required, these issues become more critical, though not necessarily any easier to fix.