The NYT is a site where registration is unnecessary[1]. Registration was harder to do for them than it is to not have registration at all. I was talking about

The NYT is a site where registration is unnecessary[1]. Registration was harder to do for them than it is to not have registration at all. I was talking about situations where you store data on a user and link more data to a user. Sure, you can do that using some kind of token in a cookie, but if you want to give your users a name at least some of the time, registration is easier. At that point "unregistered users" add more work. Your other examples are more a problem with the way registration is implemented, than with registration per se. [1] From a technical point of view. It probably makes business sense to them, although I'm unsure how.