A thank you to the lurkers

Lurkers.

According to Wikipedia, "a lurker is a person who reads discussions on a message board, newsgroup, chatroom, file sharing or other interactive system, but rarely participates."

I think aol journals falls under the category "other interactive system."

These people seem to be invisible. It's easy to find out if you have lurkers, but a little more complicated to find out who they are and where they are from. I have a Sitemeter in my sidebar to the left, which clearly shows many people are visiting my journal each day, but when I look at the comments, I generally get a few, 10, 15, or sometimes more.

So there are lots of people who stop and read, maybe just take a glance. They read and move on, never leaving a comment. Maybe they get here by accident, maybe while searching for a topic that I might have written about or referred to. Maybe they're journal hopping. Perhaps they don't know what to say, or are afraid that their words will be stuck on the internet forever, and will come back to haunt them at some later time.

I was a lurker when I first came to aol journals three years ago. I lurked for a month or so until I had a feel for the community, found it to be trustworthy, a place that felt comfortable. It was a relatively safe place to blog about anything. I found it to be a teaching community. Everyone I have met here has taught me some aspect about writing here, about taking pictures, or posting them, about creating a more interesting journal graphically, about tags, how to save them, how to post them. Even folks who will design a tag just for you are here! How cool is that!! This community feels stable and dependable, despite all the technical issues that have occurred over the years.

Yes, I was a lurker until I created my own journal, and started posting my own entries. Now I'm afull participant, and I have no regrets about being here. I don't always have time to post, and I don't post every day, but I do when I can. I notice that's the way it is for most of us out here.

In the past I have read many negative things about lurkers regarding our journals here in J-land. Or blogs anywhere, I suppose. Some call one type of lurker trolls because of the awful comments they leave behind. (see Donna's comment below.) The analogy to the creepy creature that lives in the dirty dark beneath a bridge, terrorizing innocent billy goat/kids is enough to keep me from walking over that bridge!

But I think the evil lurker may be in the minority of people who read but do not post entries themselves. I think, judging from the response I received from that one post, that most people who read but do not post their own entries probably have various reasons for not participating fully in the aol journal community.

They seem to be kind, thoughtful, helpful people.

When I wrote the entry about my beloved Max, I never expected to hear from so many people. I expected to hear from my J-land friends and neighbors, and BTW, you people not only rock, you are a rock of support in times of need. Any need. You all are there!

Then there were people I had never heard from before, people whose screen names and journal links I did not recognize. Some visitors came through links in other journals. (thank you for your support Chris, Sugar, and JoAnn, and anyone else who mentioned it in their journal)

The following words are for those of you who came here for the first time, who I only recently met.

I tried to thank everyone by email, but alas, someof the screen names would not accept my thank-you email, so to those unknown people who stepped out from the shadows for a time, and left a thoughtful word, a prayer, and touched me with their kindess, I say thank you. That was sweet of you to be so kind to me, a stranger.

I hope you will come again when the topic isn't so painful and sad.

And if you ever decide to start a journal, I'll be glad to help you get started with lots of encouragement.

                                      

                                             Me and my sister in Georgia during Spring Break 2008.

 

 

 

Tags: lurkers, trolls, friends, support, aol journals community, j-land