Guest posting? ???

I posted a reply a few minutes and it showed me as a guest. I DID log in but it must not have taken the first time. Anyway, it used to be that one couldn't reply or post messages unless one logged in. It looks like that's no longer the case. I wonder when this changed and why? Just curious.

I had some trouble trying to reply last night. Even though I was logged in, it would bring me to the login screen when I clicked on reply. I would then login again and when I clicked submit it prompted me to login again. My reply never did get posted.