I'm sure it's just a security measure to keep hackers from posting comments after they take over your computer.  Or maybe they're beta testing a new multi-factor authentication method, you can't log in to the tax software unless you log in here and post a comment first.

The first couple weeks of October are a great time to tinker with the programming for things like this.  If you wait until later in the month or even November/December then there are too few people around to do the testing for you.