If you want to play around with it, try account hn@example.com with password hackernews!
I didn't add any restrictions on email registration because I hear you that actually creating an account can be a chore. Exposing web services to the public internet without auth seems scary, which is why I rarely do it.
but also the chat function doesn't do anything unless you supply an email. Seriously without your post text here it's literally impossible to figure out what your site does exactly pre-account creation
> I didn't add any restrictions on email registration […] Exposing web services to the public internet without auth seems scary
Aren’t you still effectively doing that, though?
This seems like the combination of two downsides: Bots will be able to perform email verification if they want to; honest users will still be deterred.
I didn't add any restrictions on email registration because I hear you that actually creating an account can be a chore. Exposing web services to the public internet without auth seems scary, which is why I rarely do it.