EmptyOne: Yes, you have to be certified at Apprentice level or higher to post comments to articles. If you write interesting diary entries and contribute to free software projects, you will get certified. Actually, just hanging around might be enough. Just look at me. :)
FOAF updates: Trust rankings are now exported, making the data available to other users and websites. An external FOAF URI has been added, allowing users to link to an additional FOAF file.
Keep up with the latest Advogato features by reading the Advogato status blog.
If you're a C programmer with some spare time, take a look at the mod_virgule project page and help us with one of the tasks on the ToDo list!