Another reason people say "subscribing" is to bump the thread back up to the top in hopes that it will attract more answers.
You don't have to receive the emails when you subscribe, either. When you log on, you can go to "User CP" (Upper left on menu bar) and it will show all your subscriptions that have received updates since you last logged on.
If you just come in for a quick peek, and don't look at your subscribed threads, obviously the computer still thinks you did, and resets the "updated" list, but you can still see what you missed. Just go to User CP, Subscribed threads - list subscribed threads, and it will show you when each one was last updated.
Just so you aren't disappointed at not finding a tip ;-) - Sometimes you can discover Alice, and Winnie the Pooh, without a huge line, in the back of the toy shop in England.