Interesting observation – Lurkers

[tvrbob]

I made a suggestion on a thread that people should e-mail me for help on a specific car mod. I found myself inundated with e-mails that surprisingly came mostly from members who never post.

I find myself in somewhat of a dilemma. The information has a value in regard to the time effort and expertise within. I give it freely because I see PH as a place where people help each other. In this case people want to take without giving.

This leads me to wonder what proportion of visitors actually engage. It feels like 15:1 in favour of lurkers be them non-posting members or non-members. (Same thing really)

[PetrolTed]

I've no definitive evidence but I've experienced a similar thing on another thread once which led me to a 20:1 lurker to posts ratio

[2 Smokin Barrels]

Are people shy do you think?

I know I am.

[Wacky Racer]

I've always thought "lurker" was a strange name, it reminds me of a seedy old man in a dirty mac, hiding in the shadows.........

[2 Smokin Barrels]

Ah Punk!

[napiston]

I think you have the wrong impression of lurkers, possibly influenced by the unfortunately name. Don't think of them as lurkers, think of them as intelligent listeners.

I 'lurk' a lot, both here and on other forums, simply because I don't have anything useful to add, and I know how to use a search button when I need to find out something.

There seems to be three general types of users;
- those who go for the biggest post count (inadvertently or not),
- those that only post when the have something useful to say,
- the silent 95% who are interested in some of the topics but know they don't have anything intelligent to add.
Would you like the last group to join the first?

Also something to keep in mind is that if the numbers are what you suspect, even though they don't contribute in posts to the site, the lurkers are responsible for 95% of the site's advertising revenue. They are 95% of the eyeballs looking at the banners and clicking on them, and so in essence the 'lurkers' are the ones paying for the site.

[BrianTheYank]

napiston said:

There seems to be three general types of users; - those who go for the biggest post count (inadvertently or not), - those that only post when the have something useful to say, - the silent 95% who are interested in some of the topics but know they don't have anything intelligent to add.

-those who only post when they have something to say. Useful or not
-Those who jump on the bandwagon to feel important
-and the trolls

[PetrolTed]

You speak much sense napiston.

[2 Smokin Barrels]

Gazboy said:

(as I found out first hand) are watching

Tell more!!

[rich 36]

the poster's if thats the correct term, appear to have shifted away from the small group that appeared to frequent here a couple of years ago, it was somewhat clique'ish,
It seems presently a fairly broad range of car types here thank god.