Hello class. Roughly ten year lurker, couple dozen or so posts I would guess. I lurk from work where I know that nothing is truly private, so I tend not to post what’s really on my mind. And if you’re not going to be completely open, what’s the point?
I almost started a thread last week in the Cafe section asking for a dedicated Game of Thrones thread where anyone who’s read the books are not allowed to post. Most people’s hearts are in the right place, but I can’t read the non-spoiler thread anymore because of vague comments along the lines of “If you didn’t like last night’s episode, you REALLY won’t like the rest of the series”. True, that technically didn’t reveal any plot points, but it is still telling in the types of things that are coming. There’s plenty more examples but I won’t go back there to find quotes because I want to be 100% spoiler free.
Allow me to endorse that statement. If I could I would un-post at least 100 of my lame ones. Some of them, when I look back a few weeks later, are really embarrassing for various reasons.
I read the oldest thread and now I’m missing Satan, Eris, and Fretful Porpentine. One got banned, one got married and lost interest, and one is gone forever.
Pretty sure one of those lurker posts was mine … was curious way back if those 5,000 post plus people even thought about the silent audience when they posted. (IIRC, for the most part they don’t) I’ve managed just over 100 posts in nine years, which is actually more than I thought I had, but still few enough that I consider myself a lurker. The usual combination of some-one-else-said-it-better, shyness, and living a fairly uneventful life.
I think I posted once before, and then promptly felt so silly that I went into hiding. I love this board to pieces, though. I read, I giggle, I think of witty replies, I neglect to actually post them, I walk away.
I lurked for years before joining. Now I post a bit but still mostly lurk. I found that composing eloquent posts stressed me out, and that obsessively returning to threads where I had posted to see whether anyone had responded to my eloquent posts stressed me out too. I lurk to relax, so I decided I didn’t need the stress.
Longtime reader. Joined recently so I could use the search function. Usually, when I think I have something useful to add to a thread, someone beats me to it. The few posts I’ve made about history/religion/politics, usually someone criticizes it, but it’s clear they didn’t understand my point. I’ll keep my head down from now on.
And I kind of feel the same way, Big Bad Wolf does.