Do you judge these Dopers differently than consistently active Dopers?
Yeah I think they’re brilliant little jewels that pop up every so often and I’m rarely not delighted to see them.
I especially like when someone who has been a long-time lurker comes to the rescue of a thread as an actual authority on a subject. Like “Oh hey I build Boeing 777s” or “I programmed that feature for Samsung.”
Jewels!
I am blushing!
:sarcasm: Boy do I love contrarians! :sarcasm:
I’m just really curious when I see someone who has been here for over a decade and only has a few posts, and then they’ll post something really trivial. Why that? (Not saying it’s too trivial to post at all, just that if you hardly ever post why would that be the time you do?)
I lurk a lot on less-friendly messageboards, but I don’t understand lurking in a place that’s as welcoming and fast-moving as the Straight Dope. Maybe they just don’t often feel they have anything worthwhile to contribute? Or perhaps some just don’t spend as much time here as more-active posters.
Anyway, to say I judge lurkers here differently than regular forumites would mean I judge them at all. I don’t have a prejudice against lurkers based on their postcount, and I don’t think more favorably of anyone based on their join date. I judge any poster based on their apparent wisdom, humor, spelling, grammar, and the cleverness of their username (in approximately that order). 
Maybe a low post count is a medical condition?
There are several other message boards I belong to for which I’ve been a long-term member but which I rarely post messages to. Right now reading those boards have low priority, so I just don’t get around to it for days or even weeks.
Do you suffer from Low-P?
That’s what I think of when I see that. I have a board that I’ve been a member of for 10 years or so that’s just for TiVos, it’s where I go when I have a problem with my Tivo, I think I have about 400 posts there. Normally, I ask my question and while I’m getting the answer I’ll hang around on some of the non-TiVo related subforums (which might make other people wonder why a long time/low post count member is suddenly showing up to post about random stuff).
I do similar things at a Photography message board and a AV message board.
When I see someone show up here with under one or two hundred posts that’s been a member for more then 10 years I just figure we’re there goto place for when they have a tough question.
But I’ll admit, it is odd when I see one of those people post a strange two word, sometimes non-sequitur answer to a post. Sometimes I’m not even sure that’s worth un-lurking for. But whatever floats your boat.
I prefer to read rather than post. A lot of times someone has already said something similar to what I would have posted, but occasionally I post just because the mood strikes. For the most part I figure I’ll be ignored either way.
Obviously, I don’t have an early join date. I was a very happy lurker for many years, but then the urge to participate in the Celebrity Death Pool became overwhelming and I joined up.
I continue to be a happy lurker. I post only very occasionally. The board moves very fast, anything clever I may have to say has generally been said by the time I get there. I am okay with that. It made changing my username a no-brainer. If you don’t have name recognition, what does it matter?
Exactly this. And I read the dope almost every single day.
If someone is a Guest (which most posters are) you have to click on their name to find out their post count. I am surprised previous posters on this thread do this consistently–for me it is something I only do rarely. I am also one of those who seldom remember posters–there was a recent thread on Straight Dope Institutions–and my reaction for about 90% of the names was that I didn’t recognize them.
I lurked for about ten years. The SDMB can be kinda daunting, especially the BBQ Pit.
Their is one particular long-time poster (who is a member, so their post count is displayed) who has been here well over a decade with just a few hundred posts who only ever seems to de-lurk to post snark directed at other posters.
Yep, I’d agree with this!
No, I judge everyone equally. (I hate you all.)
I’ve had logins for Arrse and Pprune for many years but rarely post on either. I just lurk.
Hello! 
I’ve mostly lurked, off and on, for over a decade; when I’m on, I’m really on, and read probably half the current threads. I’m somewhat housebound right now, on modified bedrest, so this keeps me from buying 5 books per day on my Kindle… :o However, I guess I limit my posts to mundane topics that I can keep pithy. For one thing, I used to be really addicted to posting in another, debate-oriented forum, and I’d rather not do that again. Somewhat related, every so often I write most of a long, involved, and/or researched response to (say) Great Debates, and then realize that I may not get to hover around to make sure I’m responding to reactions to my post. So I delete it rather than run the risk of being a drive-by. I imagine in a few months, after I have a newborn around, I’ll probably drift away again for a while, too.
All that said, I still like chiming in on a conversation here and there, and I like the general demographics/personality of this forum the best out of any I’ve read, so I’ll pop in when I can wax philosophically yet briefly about pressure cookers or something.
Oh, yeah, thought of another thing…I seem to have the most fun reading really long zombie threads, but I know it’s not kosher to dredge those up, for the most part. And for more recent topics, as others have said, by the time I get around to a reply, my POV has already been said, and better than I would have worded it!
In the same vein, I’ve wondered idly about a couple people who only seem to post in the regular MPSIMS thread–did they originally wander the board more? But not enough to try to dig up their old threads. I’ve also wondered if people are gonna wonder why the heck I’m bothering to post anything at all, as this thread topic illustrates…where’s the “paranoid” smilie?
Incidentally, a couple of months ago, I wasn’t entirely sure I even HAD an account here until I tried to create one… :smack:
don’t post very often.