My technical question is how to get an acceptable answer to the question on how to register. I have now done a reasonable amount of research and have a good idea on how to get the correct answer, but it still does not work. So I will move on to a different distribution.

But my real question is why does Arch Linux persist in using this question? It is clearly error prone. Yes it does eliminate automated responses, but it also eliminates legitimate responses because it is unclear what a correct response should be.

I hope the folks are Arch Linux will see my question and re-consider their registration process.

i have seen threads like this quite a few times now.

no it isn't.
i have registered on arch forums more than once, and while i can see where some people could get stuck, i never failed to register.
the procedure is still the same.

You paste the command between, but not including, the quotation marks into your terminal, run it, copy the result back into the web form and Bob's your uncle.

Which bit have you been having problems with?

I followed your instructions and was able to register. Thanks for the information!

But I stick with my comments already made. Perhaps just adding instructions to the arch linux registration page and also adding the instruction to open a terminal window and run 'sh', 'bash' or 'ksh' might also help.

Jim A.