I have to say, I'm a bit surprised there wasn't an email verification step for registering to this forum. It's a bit refreshing, but in other ways a bit worrisome. Yes, needing to enter a real email address is a pain, and needing to go thru an extra step to create an account is a pain, but I think it's useful to keep spammers at bay.
Also, I think it would be useful to require all participants to need a (verified) account. That way if someone needs a bit of extra help, 1) we know it is the same user, through the whole conversation/thread, and 2) we could (potentially) email them or private message them as needed.
Just my 1 and a half cents.