Lurker Appreciation Week! Got help! *Whew*

Having been around the boards long enough, I have seen plenty of calls to out our fabulous lurkers. Seeing as it's the beginning of summer break and post-ROTS it might be a good time to encourage the oh so shy ones to come on out and join the madness. Some may have just started lurking, newly inspired by the movie; others may have been bogged down by finals and DRL. Whatever the reason, now should be the time to see those shining faces!

To that end I suggest a Lurker Appreciation Week

I have opened this thread looking for suggestions and ideas to help delurk the hidden masses in our stories. Considering that on boards where I do have a counter I get one post for approximately every ten hits, there has to be an enormous volume of readers who read and do not reply!

I did this once on an old story thread and got almost twenty people to delurk either in the story or via PM! So why not take it to the masses?

Of course the biggest problem will be getting the word out. Lots of readers/users don't come over to the WRF. So we'll need to spread the word in our threads. I have no talent for this, but a button that people could post in their threads might help advertise.

Any and all wonderful suggestions would be greatly appreciated here. Even a random lurker who might give us a clue what will entice them out?

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Taking into consideration all the wonderful ideas so far, I have produced a schedule of events for [b][color=blue]Lurker Appreciation Week[/b][/color]. This is by no means final, and very much open for suggestions. The week will start out slow, and build each day to end in a 'mini-awards' meant to be a fun way to recognize how great our lurkers are. (And by awards, I mean you the writer make them up and hand them out. We're not taking ourselves too seriously here ;) )

So here goes...

[b][color=blue]Sunday ? Hug a Lurker Day[/b][/color]

[ul][li]Anyone who wants to join in the mayhem will be encouraged to announce Lurker Appreciation Week in their signature.[/li]
[li]A thread will be opened in FFRF to declare our love of the lurker.[/li][/ul]

[b][color=red]Monday ? Official Start of Fave Fan Fic Recognition Challenge[/b][/color]

[ul][li]Lurkers everywhere will be asked to *delurk* in their favorite stories. Throughout the week, if a story has a lurker appear the author will announce success by editing the story thread title to say [b]*Delurked*[/b].[/li][/ul]

[b][color=purple]Tuesday ? Lazy Lurker Day[/b][/color]

[ul][li]A thread will be opened in FFRF where lurkers can simply click a button to post the name of their favorite story. (Authors can then declare they have a lurker *delurked* in the story title.)[/li][/ul]

[b][color=maroon]Wednesday ? I Wanna Be The Unnamed Ensign Day[/b][/color]

[ul][li]Authors who choose to participate can entice readers out of lurkdom by offering them the glorious satisfaction of becoming a character in the fic they *delurk* into. All *delurks* will be submitted to a judging panel in the FFRF, and the best *delurk* will win the prize ? an ignominious death in that story.[/li][/ul]

[b][color=green]Thursday ? I'm a Feedback Junkie Who Doesn't Share the Love Day! [/b][/color]

[ul][li]You know who you are! We write and wait for replies as our sustenance, yet we are remiss in sharing the love with our fellow writers.[/li][/ul]

[b][color=navy]Friday ? Guilty as Charged! Day[/b][/color]

[ul][li]Is there some story you've been secretly reading, but were afraid your pals would go, "You're reading WHAT?!" Come on. We're all guilty of indulging in flights of fancy. Inquiring minds want to know?[/li][/ul]

[b][color=gold]Saturday ? Lurker Awards[/b][/color]

[ul][li]Authors will be given the chance in an open thread in FFRF to give their lurkers awards.[/li][/ul]

*Throughout all this we encourage you to publicize [b][color=blue]Lurker Appreciation Week[/b][/color] by choosing a button to grab those lurkers attention.

[hr]

[b][u]Button

 

What a wonderful idea TKL. Perhaps if some people put a link in the sig that would help attract the lurkers out as well.

 

Wonderful idea. I lack any creative ways of encouraging them to come out however.

 

I might promise that the person who delurks most creatively can have an important cameo in my story. It worked with one person.

 

I'm not sure how effective this would be, but how about links with pre-prepared replies in them?

For example:
click to post:
click to post:
click to post: nice post
click to post: look forward to more

Just a thought.

- lazy

 

Koori: Perhaps if some people put a link in the sig that would help attract the lurkers out as well.

Great idea! Or how about people just put Lurker Appreciation Week in their sigs.

obi_ew: I lack any creative ways of encouraging them to come out however.

If I dangled wet Obi-Wan in front of you would that inspire some creativity?

Ish: I might promise that the person who delurks most creatively can have an important cameo in my story. It worked with one person.

Now that's inspired! Maybe some great bribes

lazykbys_left:I'm not sure how effective this would be, but how about links with pre-prepared replies in them?[/i]

Perfect Or at least for the ones who just can't get past the effort it takes to post

Leona: I would have thought all the nice, shiny new stories written since ROTS came out would be enough to entice them out of hiding.

Oh my. I was so afraid to make my first post ever. I was an AotCer (in that I found these boards shortly before and was hooked) but terrified of posting. So we may need to encourage them out.

Of course then there are others who haven't a fear and jumped right in! And good for them

 

They also get to pick the way they're in it. Ironically, all my chosen readers choose to have me kill them. Apparently, I'm good at that.

 

Ah, just the week for me!

I really like that this has been started.

 

Ish: Kill them! They chose that Well maybe we won't include that part More like you can be in the story but cough*somethingmayhappentoyou*cough. Of is that like the extra on Star Trek? You knew if you'd never seen him before that ensign in red was going to die

VM: Are you a lurker?! [face_stern] Glad you like the idea.

(btw - ignore me, I lurk all the time. People all over the boards will be surprised to see where I turn up next week )

 

Let's see. In one story, the lurker was the best friend who betrayed the main character after being brain-washed by a Sith and got murdered by Qui-Gon. My readers tend to read for the fact that I'm always making them bawl, so they like it when they get to die. Arin_Atona made me a suicidal Bothan Captain who saved the day in On the Shoulders of Giants.

 

TKL: I am most definitely a lurker. I read a lot of fanfiction, I just rarely reply to half of what I read. Whoops.

 

Ishy: Arin_Atona made me a suicidal Bothan Captain who saved the day in On the Shoulders of Giants.

Umm... your character nearly conked an inhabited planet over the head with a metal baseball bat the size of Manhattan.

VM: I read a lot of fanfiction, I just rarely reply to half of what I read. Whoops.

That can be said of at least a few of us

 

I don't know about "delurking" them, but I must tell you I've gotten some fascinating PMs from lurkers. Now I sort of always expect they are out there. They tend to let you know what you're doing right (or wrong) in a story and I have one in particular that helped me enrich a character immensely.

to my favorite Lurker, I muse on your observations quite frequently!

 

Anyone ever noticed how many delurk when there's a not for public posting post?

 

I keep forgetting that there must be a ton of lurkers out there because this board doesn't have a 'how many times this had been clicked on' thing.

I'll jump aboard, but I've got no idea . . . other than offering them cookies.

 

Lurkers are defintely fascinating...it's always fun (though perhaps a little disconcerting) to get a PM from somebody you've never heard of before. How to get them out, though? We won't bite you, lurkers! We promise!

 

Great idea. I'm currently working on breaking my habit of lurking considering it took me months after I registered to post anything...
--Wynssa

 

Just want to say what a great idea this is. I'm trying really hard to reply more (or at least more consistently) so to hear that lurkers are being encouraged to come out of the woodwork is definitely a good thing! I don't really have any suggestions other than that cookies always work!!

 

Yes, Arin, but it was fun, wasn't it...?

 

Thought about advertising this in my thread...decided it would look a bit self serving

I try to post in everything I enjoyed, but sometimes I just don't know what to say. "Good job, can't wait for more" sounds so...trite. It's like Elizabeth said to Mr Darcy, "We neither of us like to speak unless we can say the wittiest thing in the room."

(Jane Austin, Pride and prejudice. That's from memory since my copy is in Oregon. If anyone knows the exact quote, i'll love you forever!)

~Lurker

 

You lurk and quote Austen from memory? Where can I stop being intimidated?

 

I know it's not until next week, but I've been in this thread about three times before adding my two cents. *gives self a time out for repeated lurking*

I know I'll post a reply to everything I read next week. Even if it's just "Lurker present". And then hopefully follow up with a decent reply shortly after.

Being fairly new I went back to my first reply, to see what it was that prompted me to actually make my presence known. It said, "I'm interested." (And it took me probably over a half hour just to post that)

But I guess that doesn't really help if the lurker is not interested, huh.

And I guess we can't offer money?

Maybe we can invite them to a lurker party and post this link. When they get here we can yell, "Happy Lurker Appreciation Week!"

Ok that's corny but it's all I got people.

 

LOL. Offer services rendered--beta jobs, torture, mayhem...

 

*lurks*

oops, did I post that outloud?