I suspect someone like Knuth might attract quite a bit of mail from "math cranks" [0]; this tiny little hurdle might actually discourage a few of them. [0] htt

I suspect someone like Knuth might attract quite a bit of mail from "math cranks" [0]; this tiny little hurdle might actually discourage a few of them. [0] https://empslocal.ex.ac.uk/people/staff/mrwatkin/isoc/crank.htm https://empslocal.ex.ac.uk/people/staff/mrwatkin/isoc/crank.... (this an an excerpt from a paywalled NYT article here: http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/020999sci-math-crank.html http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/020999sci-ma... )