Lurking and lurking

[norwich36]

::Waving at everyone:: I've been travelling a lot, if you've wondered where I've been lately. And today is my last day to play on lj for a while, since I'm going on a work-related wilderness retreat tomorrow, with no net access for several days (*sob*).

But while I'm still here, I wanted to do a poll. I just read this entry on metafandom, discussing a Guardian essay which suggests that "of 100 people online in a given community, only one will produce content. Ten will comment on it, and the other 89 will simply view it." cofax7 tends to disagree with this statistic, at least in reference to lj, but I'm not so sure.

As you know, I lurked for years myself, so I'm more inclined to think there are quite a few people out there who are reading along (and maybe feeling connected to fandom) who talk little or not at all on lj. In fact, I imagine there are lots of lurkers reading out there who don't even have lj accounts. Ok, maybe they're not reading my exciting journal--clearly their loss-- but they're probably reading journals of their favorite authors.

SO here's a poll just for lurkers! Lurkers--that is, people who almost never or never comment or post entries on lj-- come take my poll! If you don't have an lj account, feel free to answer the poll questions anonymously in my comments; behind the cut I'll put a cut-and-pasteable version of the poll. And if you want to delurk long enough to explain why you lurk, feel free to do so in the comments.


[Poll #782913]



1. _______I define myself as a lurker and I am taking this poll.
2. I feel a sense of connection to the people I read on livejournal, even though I seldom/never comment:
______Yes
______No
______Sometimes

3. I lurk because:
_____I am shy
_____ I don't have time to actively participate
______I feel that I don't have anything to add to the conversation
______I prefer to stay in the background
______Other

4. Elaborate on "other":

5. I have been lurking for:
____under three months
____3-6 monts
____6 months-1 year
____over one year
____over two years

6. Will I ever delurk?
___No, I'm happy remaining a lurker
___Maybe, if I work up the courage
___Yes, when I have something to add to the discussion
___Yes, when I have more time

(Cut and paste into the comment box; put "X" on the appropriate line). Or feel free to just write answers in the comments).



And all you non-lurkers out there: did you ever lurk? Here I'm talking about more than hanging out for a couple weeks getting the lay of the land--let's say to call yourself a former lurker you had to have lurked for at least 6 months. If so, why? And what made you delurk? Since you're all claiming to no longer be lurkers, I'm going to make you actual comment to respond to this, rather than giving you ticky boxes!

Comments

[fiordispina.livejournal.com]

Just to add a few comments about my lurkerdom... I've lurked in HP fandom since 2000 (yikes). For a long time, I stayed out of it because I didn't have time, and also my primary LJ is easily googleable under my real name. Eventually, I started this other LJ that isn't connected to my real name, but for some reason it hasn't actually caused me to participate more.

I think there a few reasons for that. Time (I mean, it takes so much time even just to lurk!) is still the main one. It especially seems like if you want anyone to read things you've written, you really need to cultivate people, and the idea of investing time just to become popular among online HP fans strikes me as batty. But another reason is that HP fandom is now so vast that I don't know how I could keep up. I'm the sort of person who would think up an idea for a fic or essay and sit on it for six months before doing anything about it. In that amount of time, someone could easily post something so similar that it just doesn't make the effort seem worthwhile. Or, someone will post an essay and the comments will move so fast that you can't keep up and make any kind of meaningful contribution. The fandom seems to reward people who are online 24 hours a day. If the choice is lurkerdom or extreme overinvestment, I'm erring on the side of lurkerdom!

The only thing that ever tempts me to consider stopping lurking is that although the fandom is now much huger than it was back when I occasionally posted on HP4GU, it is also broken up into smaller chunks, mostly by ship. I suppose that could make it a bit less daunting.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

I can see how the hugeness of HP would make participation more intimidating. And things do seem to move very quickly on livejournal--it definitely is easier for people who have more time, I think.