Considering that I'm also new here, I'm not sure whether I should be happy about letting the feedback of others hold me back from being a member.. Although I agree that this prevents everyone of us from posting nonsense, I'm just not confident enough in my posts that they are merit-worthy...
My (rather sparse) observations suggest that happiness with this change rests in why one is on the forum.
My hope that is I can click on "Show unread posts since your last visit" and not have 200 pages of spam to filter.
And now, back to my lair ... new mining hardware arrived!