I mostly lurk because I a) enjoy the discussions on here and b) rarely have something so insightful to say that it’s worth posting.
Yep. Usually someone has said what I wanted to say, only with more insight and wit. So I’m happy to just read, and enjoy what others have to say.
I love how all y’all don’t post in more threads because someone’s said what you’d say, but you say it in this thread even though someone’s already said it. 
affectionate noogies Stop hiding yourselves! We don’t bite. Unless compensated.
I lurk because I can.
I’ve lurked since the '90s, and I still rarely post. It’s because I’m a shy person, not because I’m creepy. I hope.
I’m not lurking, I just usually don’t have anything to say. When I do say something, nobody usually responds or interacts with me. I haven’t felt like it’s a very welcoming message board, but I like to see what everybody has to say. I wouldn’t say anything now except I want to say that I might be less “creepy” if anything I wrote seemed like it mattered at all.
bolding mine
Shit - that’s never stoppped any of us before, post away.
It’s not that we hate you. It’s just that, well… I’m sorry, I’m having a hard time finding a truthful way to finish this sentence in a way that negates the first part.
Kidding. Kidding. I kid sometimes.
You should really start some of those threads sometime. It would only make this place better.
It’s not my pet peeve and I don’t think about lurkers all the time, but when somebody posts something like “I’ve been lurking for ten years and this is my first post…” I think, Good grief! You know I came over in a covered wagon, like yogurt and fried ants for dinner and fight zombies for a living—but I don’t know anything about you.
It’s like when a group of people are talking and suddenly the quiet one pipes up and recalls something that was said months, even years, ago. It’s not awful but it’s jarring as you tend to forget they’re even there, listening. If I constantly remembered that the Board is public I would second-guess everything I wanted to say to the point that I’d end up never posting anything.
I can understand not posting because the thread seems to be on it’s last legs and you don’t know if it’s okay to revive it. Some posters lose patience with old news, but some seem to savor new takes on it. You never know. And a lot of posters might have been saying essentially the same thing but they put their own slant on it. Sometimes the best gems are buried in off-hand observations.
I do remember when lurkers were invited to post, and a lot did. Maybe an occasional Open House would give reticent lukers an excuse to speak up and start posting. But as for the self-restraint required to only lurk, well, that just freaks me out because I ain’t got none.
That is the problem.
And…
I lurked 3 to 4 years without posting. since I found this site entertaining and instructive.
When a poster asked a question about my country, which no one else was answering, I signed up.
I’m glad you did. I bet you’ve also got some interesting tid-bits about other things, too. We’ve all got stuff to share and somebody is bound to appreciate it.
hello!
Maybe that’s why you lose track of balls.
Lurkers are just harmless government officials taking notes for their databanks before the New World Order officially commences.
I only post when:
1/ I have something to say that I feel will contribute to the conversation
or
2/ I’m inebriated
And since you so kindly haven’t asked, yes, I currently have a few sheets to the wind.
Idle thought after my new poll today: 14 views (2 of which were mine), but only 5 votes. Sure, you don’t have to post anything if you don’t want to, but why not register just to be able to vote in polls, if only the private ones?
Beautiful thought. Tangent: did we ever try to locate the thread that had (has?) the closest count for Views and Posts? I know the question has been asked; as has the one about most Views with least Posts.
What else could a person register for with the main intent of never being visible?
There’s a year-old (or thereabouts) thread with some statisitcs of how many SDMB people have (had) fewer than two posts (0 or 1) but who have been registered for years. They qualify as Uber-Lurkers for me.
Old Eel I know what you mean. Sometimes I’ve felt like I’m shouting down a well. But every once in a while there’s a response, enough to keep me posting.
I wish some of the newer (and younger, it seems) posters would lurk for a while. They charge in with their opinions flapping in the breeze, insulting or dismissing veterans and acting like middleschoolers.
If they just watched for a bit, and saw how the board works…they might just learn something.