Lurkers Anonymous

True that, Dev. I let the newbs have a bit of an immunity from the "stupid helmet" while they're getting acquainted to the atmosphere, but what I really mean to say is we're all here to have a good time, and if you delurk you may really enjoy yourself. I know my group is a friendly, chatty bunch, and it's all in good fun.

Jae Angel

 

I'm glad I saw this. Taking a break at work right now.


I usually do my very best to reply, but right now I'm having to be a lurker. So if anyone has been missing my replies. I'm still around. I have been keeping notes on stories that I read so that I can give some decent replies at a later date. Such as After April 15th. I have lots of file folders with stories that also I need to read, but I printed out so that as they are updated it would be easier to find the updates, then trying to search thru all the replies. Not that replies are bad, but if you get too far behind, its hard not to miss an update. (hope that makes some since).


So hopefully I will be less of a lurker again soon.

 

Ah lurking...

As a reader, I find that it's sometimes easier to go and read a fic and post on it a day or so later (if at all) when I have the time and mental energy to do so. It's simply more convenient.

But on the flip side, as I writer, reviews and posts make my day. Sometimes it's not even the fact that the person posts a reply so much as the person posts... they could hit the reply button and type in slkgshesghksdhf and I would be happy to know that they were reading.

eh. But that could just be me. I don't know, I hope all the lurkers know they're welcome to post in any of my fics. Like the others have been saying, everyone here is nice and everyone here loves Star Wars. Jump on in.

-Saber

 

I lurk because I'm lazy. And because my internet access has been all over the place lately. Though:

they could hit the reply button and type in slkgshesghksdhf and I would be happy to know that they were reading.

That sounds like a great solution. And lurkers, don't underestimate the power of the emoticon! Sometimes a or a says it all.

 

Lately I've been lurking do to time constraints...when I read at all. But since I have lurked most my life at all the other sites I used to frequent, I tried not to lurk here. And it was working, until I got busy...

 

I'm not the one that requested the Unlock, but thanks for unlocking it Healer Leona!

I tend to be a semi - lurker, but I've been trying more and more to unlurk. Especially since I'm trying to find time in DRL to try my hand at SW fanfic.

Ironically enough even though I write in other fandoms and understand the value of replies, I tend to lurk too. Bad me

 

<de-lurks>

*smirks at the irony of posting on a thread devoted to lurking*

<re-lurks>

 

As an author who doesn't seem to get many replies to my stories, I'd just like one of you lurkers to at least post to say you're reading it (if you are!) just so that I know someone is reading it. The problem with lurking around here is that an author doesn't know how many people have veiwed it...

Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm talking to myself!

 

What interests me is the true lurker. The ones that never reply, or at best reply maybe once or twice in the course of a year.

And as someone said a couple pages back, a true lurker probably wont even delurk to respond to this thread - I must say it just confounds me. Why not???

Admittedly, I was once a lurker. It was for a very short time and was when I first found that there was such a thing as fan fic. It's very easy on sites that dont' have an immediate feedback feature - such as Faith's JAFD site. Though there is always an e-mail addy available for the authors, it was like an extra step I just didn't take.

For this site, after waiting around for two weeks to get me username and password and having no choice but to lurk - once I got my password, I felt a little intimidated about piping in. I got familiar with alot of the regulars just by reading their fics and comments. It was like there was this established little community that I shouldn't be intruding upon - luckily, I got over that

Maybe that's it for some people - I don't know. I know that was more the case here than for at ff.n. where it's more about commenting on the fics than socializing. But some people read for months, years even without dropping a single review. I don't understand that! How can you not?!! Especially when it's an awesome fic that really touches you. If it's not that good - I can see not bothering.

I think we all have moments of being too busy, too lazy, or whatever, but what is the motivation for the true lurker. Maybe they just don't understand the power of the written word -of their own words. As an author i've come to appreciate even more the value of feedback - good or bad. I mean so many of us put a lot of time and hard work into the writing that we do - it's so nice to hear that it's touched someone or that someone thought it was a great fic. It makes all that time and effort so much more worthwhile. And while I do love to write - I doubt any of the fics i've done would have been completed without the encouragment and wonderful feedback that was received along the way.

Though I do have to say that i've gotten some wonderful e-mails from those who for some reason just don't feel comfortable posting to the boards here or at ff.n And while my recently finished fic got a grand total of 174 reviews at ff.n (respectable for that site) out of curiousity I paid for some support services that keep track of how many hits your fic gets. I was shocked at the number - over 21,000! This is over the course of a year and a half that it took me to finish, but it still just amazes me the amount of people that do not leave a review of any kind.

Now that i've made my way out of lurkdom I just can't seem to shut up. If I read anything at all that even remotely touches me or that is considered enjoyable - I must share it with others Surprisingly though - I feel I am in the minority based on the numbers above.

--shan

 

I lurked for 3 months before I gathered the nerve to register...and then I read a great story, couldn't contain myself and posted a comment. What's more, I astonished myself by posting a fic. Posting reviews on other fics got considerably easier after that - only in the fanfic boards though. I still have to battle with my inner self to jump into conversation on the Resource Board - especially when the group's very close-knit, and they trade jokes with each other. It gives the warm fuzzies to see them do that, and makes you 'itch' to join in ... but there's always this 'Oh-My-God-Now-I'll-say-something-stupid-and-they'll-start-booing' feeling that makes it difficult. .

<shrugs> And so I still lurk.

 

On the tf.n Archives, I get about 100 hits for every comment. It's really amazing the number of lurkers out there.

But I can understand it. I still lurk on occasion, mostly because life has left me with very little time lately and I still love to read. I've been coming back slowly into poster mode but it is hard. It's a lot easier to just lurk. And less intimidating if you've never done it before.

 

I'm a lurker now. I'll post something quick on a viggie or short story that I read in one sitting, but for the long ones... Well, I just don't know if I'll have the time to continue following it. When I was posting my own story here it always broke my heart when a regular poster suddenly disappeared. So I figure I don't want to do that someone else. Plus, I'm generally several pages behind the current posting.

The lurkers that drive me crazy the most are the ones that never post anywhere, ever (they have a post count of 0), but they take the time to log in with their id and add you to their watched users list. Sometimes I feel like sending them a PM jsut to find out who they are, but I've never worked up the courage.

 

I'm a lurker who's trying hard to reform!

In RL I'm pretty shy and quiet, and despite the anonymity of the internet I'm not any better online. One of the things I like about this forum is the sense of community, but it's also one of the things that makes it hard to just jump into. Everyone knows each other (whether everyone actually does or not is irrelevant - when you first start reading it looks like everyone does) so there's a feeling of why will anyone care what a new person thinks. Or a belief that someone else will say what you're thinking, so why bother repeating it.

I started replying when I read a couple 'fics that we're simply too amazing not to respond to. The time and effort that had obviously been put in deserved a response. And after the first couple of replies it just got easier.

Of course, there's all the other distractions - RL, other forums, your own 'fics - that make it hard to keep up with reviewing.

I'm not really sure if I have a point (I did when I started typing, honest!), but I just wanted to share my perspective/experience.