MrSpock
Live long and prosper
I lurk, and I'm sure that others do too, but am not at all sure how many do. I'm also not sure about how this is viewed by others. The word "lurking" seems to have negative connotations.
I'm not really treating it all that differently from conversations with multiple people in real life. In a gathering of several people I'll often not say much until I have an idea or opinion that I consider worth raising. It seems to me that most of what people say isn't really worth saying for the literal informative content, however I'm beginning to appreciate that other people find value in conversation outside of the literal informative content.
It seems to me that the biggest differences between my chat room behaviour and real life conversation with many people at once is that when I'm in real life conversation I don't fade from view if I don't talk for several minutes and I'm more often addressed directly in real life.
Do you lurk in the chat room? Do you think it is acceptable or not? It seems a logical thing to do to me, but then I am aware (and since joining this site am becoming even more aware) that I have an unusual view of what should obviously be socially acceptable or not. I don't like the idea of making the chat room less comfortable for others who may be anti-lurking, that seems to me obviously unacceptable given enough discomfort compared to the greater utility of the chat room that may be granted by those of us who lurk.
With this thread I'm hoping to obtain a better assessment of the effects of lurking. It also occurs to me that some interesting and relevant things that I've not thought of may be brought up. Please feel free to post any relevant thoughts.
I'm not really treating it all that differently from conversations with multiple people in real life. In a gathering of several people I'll often not say much until I have an idea or opinion that I consider worth raising. It seems to me that most of what people say isn't really worth saying for the literal informative content, however I'm beginning to appreciate that other people find value in conversation outside of the literal informative content.
It seems to me that the biggest differences between my chat room behaviour and real life conversation with many people at once is that when I'm in real life conversation I don't fade from view if I don't talk for several minutes and I'm more often addressed directly in real life.
Do you lurk in the chat room? Do you think it is acceptable or not? It seems a logical thing to do to me, but then I am aware (and since joining this site am becoming even more aware) that I have an unusual view of what should obviously be socially acceptable or not. I don't like the idea of making the chat room less comfortable for others who may be anti-lurking, that seems to me obviously unacceptable given enough discomfort compared to the greater utility of the chat room that may be granted by those of us who lurk.
With this thread I'm hoping to obtain a better assessment of the effects of lurking. It also occurs to me that some interesting and relevant things that I've not thought of may be brought up. Please feel free to post any relevant thoughts.