Alright, I figured this one out. It looks like by default the board was showing GDPR registration process. That's the higher level of explicity that Europe require regarding authentication process. Most of us never see this kind of thing in the US, unless we use a VPN. Anyway, the registration process shouldn't be so scary any more. No, we will not do anything with your data and I guarantee that all we're really recording is IP address to ban bad actors like Chinese spambots.

Btw, I will change my regular user name to be something more abstract so this board doesnt seem like me rattling my own cage or celebrating myself or whatever. Tacky! I will keep this account reserved for admin type stuff.

Please post any links to other forums facillitating societal discourse with others.