You get this: Select the fields to search. Subjects / Topic Authors / Reply Authors
You can search any forum. With a non-paying membership you can't search the General category, right?
You get My Active Topics, so that you don't have to subscribe to the threads you post in to keep up on the discussion. If the discussion is active, it shows up in your My Active Topics.
You get access to the archive. I just now accessed the very first post from 11/18/2000 11:43:20 PM by Troy, which began the Bushmaster Industry forum (the organization of the site was different then - I lurked occasionally - and the Industry forums were very active, sort of like 1911forum.com now).
Plus the avatar and the automatic sig line.
This is with Bronze membership, for $24.
One day at the range costs more than that.
GL