Occasionally I signup for a site because I want to checkout the members section before promoting, or once in blue moon I do it purely as a "surfer" because I find the content exceptional.
Anyway, the last two sites that I signed up for have had these "fake" members sections for trial users ... they offer very little content, are often buggy (don't ask me a why, just an observation) and the last thing they make me want to do is signup for a FULL membership after I've been "ripped off" already by the site.
Do these things really increase retention / trial-to-full conversions? All I can see it doing is pissing off surfers who have already proven that they have a credit card and are willing to use it...
Thoughts?
-P