[icebraining]

What do you consider painful about the account creation process? For me, I just log-in to a new site (using OpenID) and it automatically detects the other accounts and asks me if I want to combine them. Or are you talking about not having karma from the start?

[skeletonjelly]

Except on reddit this step doesn't exist. You're already signed in. Granted that's because of matching domains.

[TheCowboy]

It might also be considered a feature to have a small annoying hurdle to keep those who aren't as interested or knowledgeable on a topic from flinging their poos into the mix. Everyone is an 'expert' on Reddit on any topic, while that's not the case for the different StackExchanges.

[Smudge]

I guess the opening of accounts itself isn't that painful. The auto-login notification + refresh when I've logged into one site and switch to another is annoying, but also not that painful. All of this is just unnecessary, in my mind. It's these little things that get in the way of simply joining and participating across multiple sites on a regular basis.