Talk:Lurker

Once a lurker identifies themselves, they cease to be a lurker. -- I disagree! Fandom is so large and varied that introducing oneself in one place doesn't mean that you've "delurked" in another. One may lurk in one fandom and be highly active in others. This also implies that one cannot go back to lurking after having once delurked... which of course happens all the time.

I feel that, rather than an either/or situation, there may be degrees of lurker...osity... ness.

What do you think?

--greenapple 15:42, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
edited : greenapple 15:50, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

Hm, I think there is a difference between the activity of lurking somewhere and the more, uh, fundamental lurkerdom? While I have trouble wrapping my head around a concept of being a lurker everywhere in fandom, i.e. just not interested in conversation and interaction, I often only read in some fandoms, but talk and post more in others. I think the first, i.e. the state of being a lurker, really ceases to be once you delurked anywhere in fandom, because unless you create new identities for every fandom, a few people will remember you (sometimes even many), there will be stuff archived, or posted in your LJ, or website, and you build a reputation for your pseud, even if you take breaks from fandom in general or from specific fandoms. So if you de-lurk somewhere anew, there will still be a past for you, so not a real lurker. But I agree you can still lurk in specific places, it's just a special situation in the first instance of de-lurking and becoming visible.--RatCreature 16:15, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

Okee doke. Good enough for me. --greenapple 16:21, 2 October 2008 (UTC)