Thanks for your feedback.
We try to keep as much "free" as possible and don't want to put anyone off actually joining the site if we say too early in the process that some things require subs. Because it's not necessary to pay subs and have a full account and we at least want them to have a look first.
Recently I changed the site to make the forums also free for everyone to use (up to 3 months after joining). I still need to communicate this though to everyone via PM.
Welcome to the site, hope you like it