No, no, put those scalples away, we aren't dissecting anyone...today. Nor will I be exposing any parts of myself, so you can stop covering your eyes (wait, if your eyes are closed/covered...how are you reading this?). No, I was wondering if anyone would care to comment as to why they think lurkers lurk. (a lurker is generally, or at least in this case, someone who reads (or exists within), but does not participate in, a forum (or community).
See, I'm a lurker by nature. Minitokyo is the first place I've ever participated at all. Sure at some other forums in the past I've posted a message or two, but nothing even close to what I've done here. But, I got to wondering...do all people lurk for the same reason? Do they all even have a reason?
I lurk because I usually don't feel my opinions and input are important. Whenever I read a topic and think, "hey, I could reply to that! I have something to say!" it's generally overwhelmed by ten thousand other voices shouting things like "nobody cares what you think," or "what you want to say is hardly even relevant, don't waste other people's time," or "if YOU thought of it, obviously someone else has thought of it first...it's probably common knowledge," and other things of that nature.
Here on MT, though, I've had another driving force: wallpaper reviews. That's where I started out. I stumbled upon the site almost by accident one day and looked around for a bit. I decided this place was pretty cool, so I signed up for an account and started looking at wallpapers...but in doing so I felt compelled to leave a reply. All of you wonderful people were putting up your hard work for me (well...for others, too) to look at, the least I could do is let you know I appreciate it. So, whenever I see a wallpaper I like (and can think of something to say) I leave a reply. A few reviews snowballed into a lot of reviews, and eventually someone added me to their friendlist for some reason (that cool dude, VagrantDreamer...go look at his wallpapers). I thought, ok, why not, and reciprocated the add...next thing I know I'm getting notices about forum topics he's started. I hop on over, think "what the heck," and reply. From there I decided to reply to even more topics, and the rest, as they say, is history. As a result, I've even started interacting more at other forums.
But that's just me. What keeps others from posting? I know not everyone looks at it the same way I do...that would just be ludicrous. So what is it? Indifference? Poor attitudes? Lack of a grasp of the English language? Too busy looking at all the pretty pictures? I'm sure there are dozens of reasons.
Now, I'm not expecting any of my fellow lurkers to delurk for such an insignificant topic, but I'd certainly appreciate it if you did. You guys would be the ones with the answers as to why. All you non-lurkers are more than welcome to post your theories as well. I'd love to hear what people have to say on the issue. (Do lurkers, as people who essentially contribute nothing (or very little) bother you in a community such as this?)
I leave you with one further question: How many forums could a forum lurker lurk if a forum lurker could lurk forums? My guess is about twelve.