Does anyone know what the monthly subscription for STO actually gives now. Their website is actually quite uninformative in this area. I know that you cant chat with anyone but friends in game when your not a member. but i really cant find any other advantage.

Here's the breakdown from the site that I got my information from. If you need a break-down on a specific item, ask away, and I'll do my best to answer [or maybe someone who knows more than me will get back to you.]

I know that @brackynews suggests subbing for at least a month while you level to 50 to get the most out of it.

Yup yup. Here's what the matrix doesn't tell you... (it's entirely possible my information is a year out of date, but likely nothing's changed)

So unlike most F2P conversion MMOs (say, SWTOR), Cryptic does not give a damn if you subscribe monthly. You'll never need to pay for playable content, as they expect the bulk of their revenue to come through their item store and Lifetime subscribers. Thus, subbing for 1 month lets you earn and keep all the awarded perks that occur when levelling ranks at 10, 20...50.

If you plan to play for more than a year, and you appreciate certain sustained perks and unique rewards, it's worth considering the lifetime which is a much more reasonable $200 now (cheaper than pre-launch). Anytime you are Gold-level for 2+ months, at the start of your following month you get $5 worth of Zen points to spend. This really adds up for Lifers. Also people like @Legend would tell you there's no big advantage to unlimited customer support. ;)

There are very few things you may want to reacquire after letting your subscription lapse (Gold->Silver), like increasing your maximum Credits cap. Think of that like an account toggle, rather than something your characters are awarded, so it doesn't remain. It is still far far cheaper than having to buy all the slots and tokens included with 1-month as Gold, and unless you plan to be a big spender, you can live with 10 million EC for a long time.

Communication limits are there to slow down spammers. After a certain amount of /play time (20 hours on your account), or making a purchase with Zen, that limit is lifted and you can perform tells and make forum posts as expected.

It's worth mentioning that Cryptic's Foundry is a unique feature among MMOs, and anyone who is really serious about creating their own Star Trek missions tends to get a lifetime account.

Part of the reason I'm not in a hurry to support SWTOR again is that they really have taken a F2P-penalty attitude. Unlocking UI features, zone access, mission running, guild leadership, bank access, XP handicap, and credit escrow... it all just stinks after I was already a subscriber for 4 months at launch ($60+30). If I could tear myself away from STO and EVE long enough to get a month of playtime value, I might go back and get my 4 characters to end game, but fuck 'em until then. :p They're lucky I don't care about Dota. lol