Why do people have to sign up here before they can read anything?

[Cheryl Nelson]

Very simply, security. Many folk here feel freer to express their opinions in a secure environment. However, we do understand your concerns. Many websites require sign up for even free information. Your "payment" is the harvesting of your email for marketing purposes. We do not do that here. We take your privacy very seriously. So you have our promise your email address is secure and will never be used or sold for any reason. This site is provided forever free, as a public service. (Members, to keep this blog on top so outsiders can see it requires me to sort the blogs by "featured" and unfortunately, when there aren't enough featured blogs, it doesn't automatically roll into unfeatured ones. To see other blogs, click "View All" on the bottom right of the Blogs section on the main page. Only Featured blogs come up, so you then have to click "All Blog Posts". Sorry for the inconvenience. I anticipate this will be short-lived.)

[Cheryl Nelson]

True. They can also secure their personal pages in addition, so that only their ning friends can see it. It's all a matter of the level of protection they desire.