Mathieu Roy wrote:

> Sindre Berg wrote:
>
> > I also feel rather strong about this. I don't really see the problem with
> > lots of lurkers on this list, it is the same with lots of other lists too
> > and they don't do any harm. So the idea of removing lurkers after half a
> > year I find strange.
>
> Neither do I. I personally mostly lurk, in good part because I don't have an
> active BR campaign at the moment (PBeM excepted). I presume there are many,
> many lurkers who are in the same position -- but they may well turn into active
> posters once they do. Furthermore, don't forget that not all list activity
> occurs on the list. A visible lurker might be commenting directly to the
> authors of those posts he enjoys or dislikes. He is making a valuable
> contribution, but not one that shows up on the mailing list, and therefore, he
> would end up being "disintegrated".

One other point on the lurker issue....

I'm a frustrated writer type, emphasis on *frustrated*. What's that got to do with
anything? Well, I rather LIKE the idea that more than twelve people out there are
reading this stuff. I mean, if I didn't want a few hundred people to read what I
write I wouldn't bother writing email to a list. I'd just subject my friends to
additional pages of my ranting and raving. Now, this is purely egotistical
nonsense, I recognize, but the facts remain that if there weren't many people out
there reading this stuff, I'd be quite a bit less motivated to contribute it. If
you send email in the forest, boys and girls, and no one is there to download it,
then not only doesn't it make a sound, but it barely even sends a few ions flying
down the phone lines.

In short, my friends, lurkers are a GOOD thing. Even if they don't contribute
themselves, their very presence here makes those of us who crave attention and
self-validation through expressing our opinions much more likely to spend some time
writing this stuff, and that's exactly the point in having this list in the first
diddle-dang place....

Gary
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