by S. Heisley » Wed Oct 17, 2012 9:25 pm
It's kind of like looking and smelling the baked goods in a bakery without buying or eating any of them. Looking through the glass and the good smells are free and they still give you a thrill. There's no commitment but you still get to enjoy a little bit.
Sometimes, members visit as "guests" because they simply don't have the time, right then, to look at everything. Once you log on, you have to look at all the new posts because, if you don't, they may not show up as new posts later and you could miss something. When searching for an answer to a question, sometimes all you need are the words, not the pictures, and you don't need to log on...you need to get back to building!
Looking as a guest allows you to look at a specific thread that you are following or see if there is something that you want to log on and add a comment to; or, you might want to check to see if anyone has commented or questioned your posting or read what has been posted without being tempted to comment. That's when you might simply look up the thread as a "Guest". You may want to check a particular thread that you are partial to and following and not read every other active thread. I think that family members of people who have build threads often do this and many aren't comfortable with joining a forum that they will not be personally involved with.
Others may want to simply read what is going on to see if they want to commit to becoming a member. Those are called "lurkers". Lurkers sometimes want to check to see if a particular forum is made up of good people or is mostly made up of hot air and trouble.
So, there are reasons.....
PS. You used to be able to see the albums and and even copy pictures to your PC but I understand that they changed that to encourage joining and discourage picture theft.