Actually I've done this with a number of sites before and that scenario rarely happens. Non technical people almost never delete their cookies (at least from wh

Actually I've done this with a number of sites before and that scenario rarely happens. Non technical people almost never delete their cookies (at least from what I've seen). The way I've tackled it before is let them do X first (select their celebs lets say) without registering. Drop the cookie and create a user record linked to it. Then tell them that if they register they can access their list from any computer (work and home are big sellers). It's pretty effective for getting registrations and you shouldn't encounter as many problems as you think you will. If you're encountering a lot of trouble getting users to register, give it a try for a couple of weeks and see if you get more adoption. Alternatively you could let them pick their celebs first, then make them register. It's kind of annoying for the user but let's them see what's available (and get a little invested) before registration. Anyway, just my 2c.