[HPFGU-Feedback] Re: The Lurker Thing

[tiamik72 at katie_wible.yahoo.invalid]

<Hi All,

<Even researchers who study online social spaces don't see eye-to-eye 
<on the value of lurkers. For example, Jenny Preece 
<(http://www.ifsm.umbc.edu/~preece/) sees value in it (check out her 
<2001 paper with Nonnecke called "Why Lurkers Lurk" 
<http://snowhite.cis.uoguelph.ca/~nonnecke/research/whylurk.pdf or 
<http://tinyurl.com/e5gp) while Marc Smith 
<(http://research.microsoft.com/~masmith/) doesn't.


Hi, I am a long time lurker, and I am proud of it! j/k but many lurkers have 
justifiable reasons for lurking. Here is my situation. My sister read the 
fifth book first. I had to wait for her to finish before I could even start, and I 
vowed to myself that I would not read any spoilers on the list, because I did 
not want to ruin anything for myself. That being said, I am now literally 
20,000 posts behind. I would like to continue reading in order, because i love to 
read everyone's take on a subject, and I hate just randomly picking a thread 
because I will probably have no clue what is going on. 

I haven't had alot of spare time to read the posts, but I love doing so. I 
love the fact that there are intelligent people willing to talk about something 
as incredible as these books. I have been so busy sending out college 
applications, working at my localgrocery store, doing regular homework, stage crew for 
my school, and I am also on my school's golf team. When I get a free moment 
to enjoy the list, it makes me so happy. It would be horrible if you guys would 
get rid of the lurkers. Plus if I posted from a thread from about six months 
ago, no one would even remember saying what they did back in June. And 
finally, I do not want to insult anyone's intelligence by coming up with a profound 
discovery that everyone else has figured out. I hate reading those, because by 
now everyone should know basic characters and plots, and it annoys me when 
people say redundant things. (which I probably just did)

Maybe in this group I will not lurk as much
Thanks
Katie


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