This module is for administrative purposes.
 
It is useful if you want to lock your site for a certain amount of time, but don't need the maintenance mode. 

It is great when using DTAP environments. For instance, when making a copy of your Production website to your Accept environment.
In the accept environment you perform all updates. When all updates have been performed, you can now copy your accept environment
back to the production environment, without losing data!

How? The 'Read Only Mode' module puts your site in a Read-Only modus, where people can still access all nodes and comments. 

Usage of this module is very simple:
* After installing you can find the option to enable read-only mode for your site under 
  "Site Configuration" -> "Site Maintenance" (path: admin/settings/site-maintenance)
* Here you can put your site in Read-Only mode, and leave a message for your visitors.
* During this Read-Only mode, all users are permitted from posting nodes and/or comments. 