On one hand, spammers can easily create accounts beforehand. On the other hand, it might discourage legitimate new members posting for the first time, like whe

On one hand, spammers can easily create accounts beforehand. On the other hand, it might discourage legitimate new members posting for the first time, like when they notice their work is highlighted here, or a long time lurker who feels empassioned to respond to something. Spam doesn't seem like that big of a problem right now. Between green names, downvotes, flags, and @dang, I think we generally do a good enough job of filtering out and preventing them from floating to the top. I'd rather have a few bad ones get through than dissuade someone new who's earnestly trying to post.