In the context of recent discussions on Meta about troll posts and posts from new users, I was wondering why SE allows unregistered users to post questions and answers?

I've noticed that the worst of the low-quality posts that I've seen in recent days have been from "unregistered" users. (Not just on History:SE, but also on the other SE sites that I'm signed up to.)

Most other sites I use allow people to read content freely, but require them to register before they can post. Why did SE take a different approach?

@sempaiscuba There's probably a meta thread about it.

I know when I first started here (geez, almost a decade ago), you had to have an account. Posting "unregistered" was not an option.

It used to be most of our Nazi content came from registered users, and I'd go through the process of escalating mod notes and timed bans before the time got so long they forgot about us.

...now its almost all brand-new unregistered users, and I just destroy their accounts. I guess in a time-spent-per troll basis, you could call that an improvement? But it seems like there are more of them.

Note that "protect"ing a question is some small defense against them (as they usually can't scrape up the required rep to post).