Any password with 5 or more characters. There are no ad banners for paid subscription users. A 1 day time limit is placed on the account. After 24 hours, the account will be removed. You can start a new demo account just by selecting a different password, but your old account information will be gone.
Posting is restricted to the local newsreader.
Reading is restricted to articles in the big 8 news hierarchies plus a few other groups, but subject headers can be examined in all groups.