Yeah, but it's kinda part of the game. Installing the FFE allows you to use the site with an anonymous address.
You can also lie about the email used if you so desire. It's really just there as part of the social contract for using the site.
Any thoughts on a better way to handle that? The whole point of the free/ad-free site is the later reminder to come back and "do the right thing" and help future searchers.
IMHO there is no "it's kinda part of the game". there is good design and there is better design. no opt-in for search should be a no-brainer. remember that this is where you deliver value to the user.
If they went that route, they would probably lose out on a bunch of answers that people figured out on their own, which is kind of the whole point of the site. Otherwise you have a ton of error messages and problems, and no way to fix them.
1 - the user pastes his error message
2 - he gets a list of possible answers
3 - if he finds a suitable answer, he clicks on it
4 - if he does not find an answer, you ask him to give his email adress so that you notify him when an answer is found
5 - if an answer is found you notify him
6 - after 48hours you send him a message with the subject line "nobody found and answer to your question. did you find one?"
also: I find the high contrast a little painful to look at.