Putting aside the sense of community one gets from being an active participant on the board, I just want to point out the negatives for you in doing the opposite and lurking on UG. By lurking, I specifically mean the process of browsing the board without being logged in without regard to whether or not you even post. (You should appreciate that this is even allowed here on UG. Many boards - not necessarily limited to "hobby" boards - don't even permit one to read them without logging in.)
Moving on from that, though, from your standpoint as someone browsing here, what are you missing out by not logging in? First off, you won't be able to click on photos to enlarge them without being logged in. (If you try, you'll see a message that says, "You must be logged-in to do that.") So, if you want to enlarge one of the mini pics that has been posted lately, you can't do it. Yes, it seems like a trivial thing, but try identifying someone from those postage-stamp sized pics and tell me how successful you are.
Secondly, you won't be able to avail yourself of the "New Posts" feature to track the active threads that you have not read. Yes, you can find "Recent Posts," giving you a reverse order list of threads that have been posted in, but by using "New Posts" you would see a list of threads that you had not read since they were last posted in. This is a quick and easy way to track your activity and catch up on your reading. And if there are threads that you're not even interested in reading, you can clear them all out in one click, so that you can start fresh again the next time you log in. I won't bother explaining that process in detail here, because if you're not logged in you won't even be able to see the click options and understand it.
Lastly, if you do post on occasion, but don't always log in to browse, you won't be able to avail yourself of the "Alerts" feature. That feature alerts you to activity specifically related to you. For instance, it would show you if someone "liked" one of your posts. It would also show you when someone quoted one of your posts. And it would prompt you if one of the mods sends you a message.
See all this for yourself. If you've already registered an account, log in and compare the browsing experience versus not being logged in. I'm not even suggesting you post if you're not compfortable with that. Just enjoy the difference in the experience of being part of the shared sense of community. And if you haven't signed up, do so and then log in. You can use an email addy that you set up specifcially for this hobby so that there is no trace back to your regular email. And again I repeat that you don't have to post if you're not so inclined. But at least try being part of UG by logging in.
Moving on from that, though, from your standpoint as someone browsing here, what are you missing out by not logging in? First off, you won't be able to click on photos to enlarge them without being logged in. (If you try, you'll see a message that says, "You must be logged-in to do that.") So, if you want to enlarge one of the mini pics that has been posted lately, you can't do it. Yes, it seems like a trivial thing, but try identifying someone from those postage-stamp sized pics and tell me how successful you are.
Secondly, you won't be able to avail yourself of the "New Posts" feature to track the active threads that you have not read. Yes, you can find "Recent Posts," giving you a reverse order list of threads that have been posted in, but by using "New Posts" you would see a list of threads that you had not read since they were last posted in. This is a quick and easy way to track your activity and catch up on your reading. And if there are threads that you're not even interested in reading, you can clear them all out in one click, so that you can start fresh again the next time you log in. I won't bother explaining that process in detail here, because if you're not logged in you won't even be able to see the click options and understand it.
Lastly, if you do post on occasion, but don't always log in to browse, you won't be able to avail yourself of the "Alerts" feature. That feature alerts you to activity specifically related to you. For instance, it would show you if someone "liked" one of your posts. It would also show you when someone quoted one of your posts. And it would prompt you if one of the mods sends you a message.
See all this for yourself. If you've already registered an account, log in and compare the browsing experience versus not being logged in. I'm not even suggesting you post if you're not compfortable with that. Just enjoy the difference in the experience of being part of the shared sense of community. And if you haven't signed up, do so and then log in. You can use an email addy that you set up specifcially for this hobby so that there is no trace back to your regular email. And again I repeat that you don't have to post if you're not so inclined. But at least try being part of UG by logging in.
