Ok, so I opened it back up. No more forced login. But the CAPTCHA stays.
I thought, in the end, its easy to delete a handful of spam comments,
and I would prefer that anyone who stumbles in here can look around.
I just hate when my email inbox gets flooded with 50 spam comment
notifications in an hour. So I'm hoping the CAPTCHA will at least slow them
down, and maybe discourage them. Time will tell
I would still encourage you to register though. It's a small gesture of support
that goes a long way, and does not go un-noticed or un-appreciated.