Would you mind saying what you mean by 'lurking'? In all my life on the Internet, it's a positive thing when joining a community. You're invisible to everyone and just read. Why should people not do this? It seems harmless to be in read-only mode.
So if someone is informed on a topic they have a kind of societal obligation to post? By not posting, it allows those who may be less experienced or outright trolls to steer the discussion towards irrelevance.
I like the idea, but not sure how folks know which group they fall into.
Of course not, there's nothing wrong with not posting. My question was just out of curiosity for why people never feel "compelled" (not a great word here) to post while actively browsing quite a bit.
Casually at best. It is something to read when I am taking a break from my projects. So I do show up here most days. I participate, I comment, I go away... sometimes people reply to me, sometimes not. I don't fret over much of it.
The only thing I dislike is not allowing everyone to see my preview posts. If I write something cool that remains relevant, I'd be sad to see it go. I might end up just posting in a more permanent place instead.
I did not mean to offend you. And I am sorry I used that terminology. To me it felt odd that if you reach the front page suddenly eyes are looking at your history and everything you have done.
If you put yourself out there, suddenly eyes are watching everything. That seemed a bit scary (and again sorry for using emotional words), though of course makes sense why it happens.
But in general, I fully agree with you. There are many reasons to do it, and perhaps it's even helpful when something is not clear and you want to understand better where someone is coming from, as you said.
Would you mind saying what you mean by 'lurking'? In all my life on the Internet, it's a positive thing when joining a community. You're invisible to everyone and just read. Why should people not do this? It seems harmless to be in read-only mode.
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