> If you're not willing to put in the very minor time investment, then you probably don't have much to contribute to the community,

Sometimes the person wants to post a reply to help someone else,

and then a minor time investment can be a big hurdle? So the people in the forum gets less help — they get help only from people who themselves are wondering about something, and so are willing to spend the time to sign up?

I think it'd be nice with global identities that worked across all forums. And one could have many, per person. One for work, one for a hobby, another for another...