Internet Lurkers

[capt.george]

In Internet culture, a lurker is a person who reads discussions on a message board, newsgroup, chatroom, file sharing or other interactive system, but rarely or never participates actively. Research indicates that "lurkers make up over 90% of online groups" (Nonnecke & Preece 2000). Lack of trust represents one of the reasons explaining lurking behavior

[BigWillJ]

Yeauh, so, what's the point?

Would that also mean that anyone who reads local or national newspapers, magazines, etc, or watches local or national TV news, etc, and other stuff, etc etc, but don't "actively participate", also suffer from this so called "lack-of-trust" syndrome?

In my opinion, the people who come up with that kind of crap have problems of their own. People READ to educate themselves. What makes the internet culture so much different from that?

What a bunch of bull.

[AJ Riley]

A wise man doesn't prove he has nothing to say by opening his mouth!
I'm mostly a lurker, and yes ,I've learned alot from this forum. There are alot of good people on here. Smart people. Some not so much.
I don't get away to fish the bay like I'd like to. I'm not knowledgeable(I had to look up the spelling) on fishing the bay, or an expert about boating. I don't live in Maryland, but I do love the bay. I really enjoy reading of the great rescues TF'ers make to help out other fishermen/boaters in danger. I live vicariously through the TF community.
I lost my good job last year and now I deliver am newspapers to get by. I'm not asking for a pity party. Just saying it's difficult to get to the bay from PA even to ho. What with the upper bay so muddy(how'd I know that?)
I'm just saying that's my reasons for lurking. I just don't have much to say of interest to other people on this forum.
There's almost always more than one explanation for any given situation.
I could tell you about my shakdown cruise in my new to me old 1989 starcraft v hull aluminum boat with a 1984 15 hp motor I bought and how it ran like a top Sunday on Lake Marburg, but all of a sudden I lost propulsion but not throttle so I lurked on old forums from years ago and then did some tests that were recomended and discovered the problem was a spun hub in the prop(whew! and not a lower unit internal problem). Who would care?
For the most part, my world is different than the TF world. Oh I go shad fishing from time to time, and fish the river(with bait, see I'm bad) I've said too much AJ

[pkeating]

Good stuff AJ. Neatly sums up much of the lurker issue.

Pat

[kidz]

The good capt could never be considered a lurker with all the posts he has put up. Some interesting, some informative, and some hard to understand. We should all be thankful that TF provides for the people who catch and know where to fish, the people who love reading all the stories that are posted(lurkers included), and the people who like to challenge others about certain posts. Thanks Brandon for what you have given TF members and non-members. Oh, by the way, Ban Illegal Nets to save the rock and other specie trapped by these nets.