Chiming in late here, I agree that a more heavyweight new-account process is the path of least resistance, and I wouldn't particularly mind if the email features went away entirely.
I honestly didn't even know there were email features to alert me of new posts. I wouldn't usually suggest removing a feature just because I don't use it, but if it's causing that many problems it might be the best thing.
I too keep a tab open to visit here once a day or so to see what's up.
I don't keep a tab open, but the site is featured prominently in my bookmarks bar as you can see in the attached image. I do visit here constantly throughout the day.