Lurkers and observers.

I have a few friends who want to watch my game as it goes to see what it is like before we start one together. Could there be a specific link you give someone (similar to the player link) that lets them observe a game without participating or being listed as a player?

This is a brilliant idea; it's not unlike live streaming it, but would be entirely one-sided. My only concern would be the weight it would put on the involved servers. But seeing as the video conferencing is all handled off-site... it couldn't be that much of a drain on the bandwidth... I second this notion. It has utility.

What's wrong with giving them the player link, and gettling them to set their video and voice preferences to "none" and not fiddle with the tools?

It wouldn't require they even make a player account to view it. Think of it as a campaign-by-campaign demo mode. Heck, people could later run demos of new RPGs out of it, and post the link here to the forums for people to go and watch how the game plays in real time. Etc. Would eliminate the need for setting up a livestream if they have limited technical skills, as well. It's a small thing that could function as a multitool, as it were.