[This post will remain at the top of the list until Word Press either fixes the problem or undoes it. Scroll down for the newer stuff. –Bunk]
Not that we get a lot of comments here, but if you try to post one you may get this error message:
WordPress decided to make some platform changes yesterday [13 March] without telling anyone. One of the problems is that commenting is blocked unless you have a WP account, or log in with FB or something. Brilliant.
A lot of bloggers on the WordPress Forum are pissed, and for good reason.
Meanwhile a blogger friend figured out a work around until WP fixes the problem they created. Here’s the direct link for a step-by-step temporary fix to allow you to comment with your Gravatar:
tech-note-wordpress-com-changes-commenting-with-gravatars
And here’s a typical comment from the WP forum:
This is just a complete mess, I’ve had a tiny fraction of the usual number of comments at my blog today, with a bunch of people emailing me to say they can’t log in to comment.
Did I miss an email from WordPress to warn this was going to happen?
What is the solution here for people who don’t have WordPress accounts – and don’t want one – and don’t want to sign in with their Twitter/Facebook accounts to comment?
Please WordPress, undo the changes you made asap, this is a mess.
[Update 16 March: Possible reasons for the change, detected and described by ChenZhen here.]
Tacky Raccoons 
It’s odd to have WP do an update without warning, especially one of this magnitude.
No wonder most of my commenters are not commenting.
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LC Aggie– No idea why they didn’t fix the Gravatar/WP linkage. They didn’t even warn anyone about it and a lot of people (including me) thought they were blocked from posting by blog owners.
Speaking of being blocked by blog owners, guess who kicked out over 10K registered users last year?
http://diaryofdaedalus.com/2012/03/13/lgf-banned-list-update-lizard-genocide/
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