I suppose. The top area is intended to afford fly-out ads at some point. I'm sure that makes you shudder, but I'd be pretty happy if we could eek a couple of bucks out of it. (Heaven knows we're good at making neat things that don't generate any cash.)

As for the email/password thing, we're just trying to manage the spam component. Communities like this can easily get run-over, without introducing a few little obstacles.