I like Simple Value. It was a concept that a lot of people have stopped using. You either allow a user to use your site without signing in, with extra value for them if they do OR just provide the value proposition up front so that they will be willing to sign in.

Obviously, this won't work if you are hocking sluggish blogspam with less content than the titanic had lifeboats and enough javascript to track my cross atlantic voyage. Just make shit that doesn't suck and users will sign up if it is necessary. If there is no need to have users sign up don't have it.

Super Simple Value. Build on Super Simple Auth ^TM.

Authentication and authorization are different concerns, and OAuth attempts to handle both in a secure manner. I love working with basic with too, but it's not a fair comparison.