# Is it weird being mainly a lurker?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 22, 2015, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248 "2015-04-22T02:23:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Phedre\_no\_Delaunay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phedre_no_Delaunay)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/1 "2015-04-22T02:23:45Z")
I’ve been reading here since 2002 and registered since 2003 and yet have only a couple hundred posts. I mainly lurk around and just read (and laugh! Gosh, y’all can tell some funny stories!). Is that really weird? I feel almost as if I know you all, but of course, most of you don’t even know I’m here. I wonder how many lurker types hang out here? It’s kind of weird to me to know so much about you guys when it’s not reciprocated, but that’s my own fault for not posting much.
---
### Author:  [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/2 "2015-04-22T02:29:44Z")
I was a lurker for the longest time (under a post a day) but it wasn’t totally by choice. I’ve always had old raggaty-assed computers and reading was just a lot easier than posting. As for are you weird for lurking – dude, have you ever read any of the threads here? Weird, posting or not, should almost be required.
---
### Author:  [@Umbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Umbridge)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/3 "2015-04-22T02:57:39Z")
I have a Facebook account, and I seldom post anything on it. Most of the time, I use it to browse the Facebook network and check out people’s profiles and postings. When I do post, which is rare, my conversations (often through the private message feature) are usually polite, well-mannered, tactful, and tasteful - similar to real life. I get extremely paranoid when I publish or reveal anything sensitive that has my real name attached to it, so I just make my Facebook account squeaky clean. Now, my Facebook account was registered with an old “spam” e-mail address. Only a few in-person acquaintances of mine (classmate, mother, father) know that e-mail address, and can probably look me up on Facebook through it. Because the e-mail address is used to register to countless websites since my debut to the Internet, I am getting more and more worried that the administrators - who have access to the e-mail address - would take advantage of their power and look up my identity, thereby de-anonymizing the Internet. Privacy concern is one reason why I take great caution in keeping my e-mail address private so online users cannot contact me by e-mail and why I set up several e-mail addresses that I may use as personal/non-professional/recreational digital contact and why I make usernames on different websites/forums different or unconnected with each other. I also select pseudonyms for my e-mail addresses.
So, I’d say it’s normal to be a lurker.
---
### Author:  [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/4 "2015-04-22T03:19:15Z")
so you’re probably an introverted person. Nothing wrong with that.
---
### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/5 "2015-04-22T03:25:12Z")
Who was it said, “_Better to be silent and be thought an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt_” – advice I routinely ignore, I guess because I do not mind so much being thought a fool
---
### Author:  [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/6 "2015-04-22T03:29:22Z")
> [@Phedre\_no\_Delaunay](#):
>
> I’ve been reading here since 2002 and registered since 2003 and yet have only a couple hundred posts. I mainly lurk around and just read (and laugh! Gosh, y’all can tell some funny stories!). Is that really weird? I feel almost as if I know you all, but of course, most of you don’t even know I’m here. I wonder how many lurker types hang out here? It’s kind of weird to me to know so much about you guys when it’s not reciprocated, but that’s my own fault for not posting much.
I lurked here for decades it seems. Learned a whole bunch of things while at it.
Like the optimum soil acidity for green bean growth. (Just kidding, well maybe not) 😃
Anyway from one Lurker to Another, welcome.
---
### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/7 "2015-04-22T04:07:21Z")
If you don’t have anything to say, why say anything?
---
### Author:  [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/8 "2015-04-22T04:38:18Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#):
>
> If you don’t have anything to say, why say anything?
🙂
---
### Author:  [@2gigch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2gigch1)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/9 "2015-04-22T04:49:02Z")
If what you do makes you happy you owe no-one an explanation.
---
### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/10 "2015-04-22T04:57:02Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#):
>
> If you don’t have anything to say, why say anything?
[Ford Prefect had a theory about that](http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Chapter_5).
---
### Author:  [@blue\_infinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blue_infinity)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/11 "2015-04-22T05:09:44Z")
My theory is that us lurkers make up the bulk of the SDMB. The 90% of the iceberg hidden beneath the surface, so to say. Just hanging around.\*
The front page says 5247 active members, but I don’t think I’d recognize more than a couple hundred names.
\*And watching everything you do.
---
### Author:  [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/12 "2015-04-22T05:45:06Z")
If there’s only 5,000 active users, why do some threads have over 50,000 views? Are there that many guests who lurk without even registering?
---
### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/13 "2015-04-22T05:59:35Z")
I think every time you open a thread, its view count increases. Some of the more active threads have posters opening them repeatedly to look at new posts, so the view count goes up.
---
### Author:  [@Teach-me-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teach-me-not)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/14 "2015-04-22T10:17:15Z")
I love this board, but for a long time, didn’t care enough to register. And when I did, it was mainly to use the [del]stalk[/del] search functionality. 🙂
---
### Author:  [@The\_Tof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tof)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/15 "2015-04-22T11:50:22Z")
A decade plus ago I used to post constantly (username: Screeme). Somewhere, that changed to me still coming every day but for the vastly most part, just reading… I’ve been happy in both ways.
So long as you are enjoying yourself, it isn’t wierd.
---
### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/16 "2015-04-22T11:54:40Z")
> [@Phedre\_no\_Delaunay](#):
>
> I feel almost as if I know you all, but of course, most of you don’t even know I’m here.
A friend of mine here on this board is fascinated by guys/gals like you. Whenever you ‘crop’ up he’ll look to see what kind of topics cause you to post and often even share the info with us in emails. You may not be quite as unnoticed as you think… 😉
---
### Author:  [@Heropsychodreamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heropsychodreamer)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/17 "2015-04-22T13:10:02Z")
141 posts since 2008 and I lurked for at least 6 years prior to that. I enjoy reading the board, and there are a few things I like to say every now and then. I am a huge supporter of fighting ignorance. To be honest though, as much as there are some great posters here, there are far too many annoying people on this forum for me to want to be a regular contributor, so lurking it is with an occasional post. (0.06 times per day to be exact).
---
### Author:  [@tonyfop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tonyfop)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/18 "2015-04-22T13:25:41Z")
I lurked here for a few years trying to build up the nerve to post, back in the AOL days. I posted a couple times and people were not exactly friendly, so I went back to lurking. Then there was the wonderful “Pay to Post” era, where I lurked continuously. Now, I post kinda regularly, but it took getting my feet wet to actually try to engage in conversations…
---
### Author:  [@mike\_ahndembroak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mike_ahndembroak)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/19 "2015-04-22T13:35:00Z")
Usually by the time I think of something to add to the conversation its already been said. So I continue to lurk.
---
### Author:  [@Inna\_Minnit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inna_Minnit)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2015, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248/20 "2015-04-22T13:50:11Z")
It is very normal to just lurk on a message board. In fact, most members do just that. We just don’t know about it because they don’t post. Look at the stats here
> [@](#):
>
> Straight Dope Message Board Statistics
> Members: 169,070, Active Members: 5,247
And “Members” are those who went to the trouble of signing up. It does not count those who just read without ever signing up. I have been a reader here since about 2002 or so. It took me a few years to get around to registering.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-being-mainly-a-lurker/718248.md?page=2)