h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What are everyone's thoughts on lurking on h2g2?

By that, I mean reading posts without contributing to the conversation.

I'm curious about motives, methods, different types of lurking, the netiquette of lurking, privacy issues here on h2g2, anything else that seems relevant.

It has been suggested that I work on a guide entry on lurking, but I can't do that properly, as it would be totally subjective. I ran a search and didn't find anything that really seemed to apply, so I'm putting the question out there. If we do accumulate enough information to make a good entry, all contributors will be credited.

Omnipresently yours,
MoG

Perhaps I could be classed as a lurker.

I have contributed to conversations here and there in the past couple of months. However sometimes it is difficult,timewise, to keep up with the threads.

In 24 hours 2 or 3 pages of messages can accumulate on a page. That means a posting one has made or a thought of a posting one has had becomes - well, old news, since the converstion has moved on.

I like h2g2 because it seems to attract intelligent people with relevant things to say. But it does take a lot of time to keep up with what is going on.

not waving but drowning - 176645

Personally, I read a lot more than I post on h2g2. Often that's because I don't really feel I have a valid contribution to make at that point in a conversation and I prefer not to address posts that were made way back in a thread, and the conversation has already moved on to something I don't have any input on. I also have a slightly twisted sense of humor that not everybody finds particularily funny, especially if it comes from out of the goo with no warning.

I lurk the peer review and rarely feel qualified to contribute there, and of course I lurk "ask h2g2" Even pushed that button that notifies me of new conversations here.

Sometimes, if I'm puzzled or delighted by what someone has been posting I'll go have a peek at their page, see what they are about. Occasionally I see other conversations listed on their pages with titles which intrigue me, and I'll go look at those, too. I've been involved in some fun conversations through bouncing off people's pages in that manner.

On privacy:
Until very recently it hadn't occurred to me that some people feel much more territorial about their pages than I do. For the longest time I assumed that everyone felt as I did, and that if something were put on a place like this, it was likely to be read by strangers, and that that was to be expected.

I'm wondering, is it ok to read people's journal entries? Or is that something better left alone? I'd never look at someone's paper diary, but it seems different somehow when it's tagged on the end of their page in plain view.

That's enough from me, for the moment.


MoG

Of course you can read diaries. If people change their minds about their journal entries, they delete them. Get in there and post to their journals. You meet some fascinating people that way. No point in stalking them to their lair and then not leaving a calling card

Thanks for your opinion, . I feel the same, though I don't always leave a calling card. I used to do that a lot, go on unofficial greeting missions for new users especially. But I discovered that some people consider me inherently offensive, or something, so I've more or less stopped posting on people's pages unless I have a pretty good reason to think it would be ok. But that's just me. Live and learn.

I can't really see a problem with it. Every researcher has the option either to keep things private, or to go public. If you want to share your thoughts and details with others, post it up. If you want to keep it private, don't post.

In terms of posting comments on their journal entries, I guess it depends on the person, and you will probably get a hint as to receptivity by their home page or their response to other posts first. Its worth checking, I guess.

CR

I would say that pretty much summed things up. Privacy issues are inapplicable to a public site.

P.S. When one has registered to become a researcher, one has agreed to the following:
"Where you are invited to submit any contribution to this site (including without limitation any text, graphics, video or audio) you are required by such submission to grant the BBC a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sublicenseable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, play, and exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to any such work worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any media now known or later developed for the full term of any rights that may exist in such content, consistent with privacy restrictions set forth in the BBC's Privacy Policy."

I suppose you were suggesting that lurkers are in irrelevant considering the fact that the BBC owns you here. Too true. And the purpose of the site is not the fostering of a private community. One posts with the knowledge that it is for anyone to read - privacy is not implied in any way by h2g2.

As for being a lurker... The distinction between "reader" and "lurker" seems blurry and I suppose it ends up being a matter of personal perception. I myself don't mind so-called lurkers and I don't expect anything in return from them. Since I read whatever crosses my path and catches my eye, I guess I could be considered a lurker. So this this lurker will answer that she has no special motive, her method is random chance, and she only responds when she has something relevant worth saying.

the forums are extremely difficult to navigate - you've got to spend some time lurking so you can find your way around them!

I suppose I'm a lurker too.. I rarely feel that I have anything to contribute that hasn't already been said by someone else so I prefer to keep quiet. I'm just as quiet IRL too.

Well, back to the shadows I go, got some lurking to do..

Good question, MoG and one that needed to be asked this week.

I'm a very high profile lurker. By that I mean that most people know I do it, because I tell them. There's a link to my space on someones page which even states it. People wave to me in places I have never posted. My user name is of a fish that everyone thought was extinct, but had, in fact, been lurking.

Yes, I read private conversations. Yes, I read journals. I don't feel bad about it. Why write here if you don't want them read, or even responded to. My journals tend to be obscure references to things that only the person/people involved would understand, but I love to have visitors to my space and anyone here in person or in spirit is free to lurk. Say hi too if you like.

Whilst I don't feel guilty about lurking, I would consider it bad form to interrupt a long standing thread between two people. If I had something to say I'd probably start a new thread, but more likely, like most lurkers, keep it all to myself.

I tend to initiate chat with people if I've encountered them before, and it would be very, very rare for me to start a conversation with a person I hadn't. (Hi MoG ).

I have two kinds of lurk mode. If you see my name in the who's online list and go to my page you'll be able to see if I'm active posting stuff. If not, chances are I'm reading. If my name isn't on the list, this does not mean I'm off doing something interesting. I might just be lurking with a cloak of invisibility on.

My reasons for lurking are exactly the same as MoG outlined above. In addition, I talk for a living. Lots and lots. I also mix with a fairly limited cross section of the population, know as teenagers. So, when I come here, it's time to listen. I hear the voices of a community of people so wide ranging it amazes me, but they never fail to capture my attention whether the conversations are slow moving. long distance ones between two people who will never meet, or loud fast moving ones with lots of people.

*lurks quietly while formulating a relevent posting*

Mel

Whoops!
Longest posting I ever recall making in 18 months here and then I forgot. I have this link on my page, just to see who is talking, and what about.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/info

I'm here just a couple of months now. So far, I've contributed mostly to Peer Review, and almost anywhere else I've just lurked. I didn't think anyone would find a problem with this.

I don't see any comparison between journal entries here and keeping a private diary - it's more like keeping a journal on post-it notes on the canteen coffee machine! I certainly wouldn't say anything I wasn't prepared to have quoted back at me. Since people can put up links and email addresses on their home spaces, I would certainly expect that anything private or confidential would be taken off any public thread here and carried on by email.

As far as I'm concerned, there are a lot of no-go areas on the web as a whole - not because I can't get there, but because I can't imagine wanting to. I feel that one of the good things about h2g2 is that there aren't any no-go areas here.

Azara

With the huge size of this site there's far too many things going on to be involved in all of them, even though they are interesting.
Like Coely I'm also one those who indulges in large amounts of lurking between bouts of posting.

I have always wondered if it's better to leave a calling card or just lurk?.
Normally I just lurk.

The whole point of h2g2 is that nothing is private on the site, if you want to keep something private don't post it.
or move off site and use email or one of the messanger services.

The only time problems occur is when someone you know IRL is also on the site and they post something about you which you had kept off the site

By the way why is this tread called lurkers anonymous, when by posting here we are anything but that?

What would be nice is to get a reply from some of those long time lurkers who haven't even registered (yet )

In virtual life as in real life there are people who like to talk and people who like to listen. I always assume that anything I write will be read by at least 10 times as many people as respond to it and self-censor on that basis. If you see it here with my name attached, feel free to jump in and comment (it's always nice to know there are other people out there) but if you'd rather just read and ruminate that's fine by me.
Nobody who posts here should ever be under the illusion that any conversation or journal entry is private - if it's for your eyes only then it belongs in the notebook in the locked cupboard down a dark staircase behind the sign saying beware of the leopard!
And don't forget that as well as the people signed up here, our entries can be read by non-researchers and since Google scrapes the site every now and again our pages are liable to turn up from searches that had nothing to do with H2G2. For example my sister recently went searching for info on Roland Rat and ended up being directed to an entry here. She's also one of those people who signed up here and never posts anything - although I know she pops in every now and again just to check up on me
I'm not normally a lengthy poster (or indeed a frequent poster) but it astonishes me that anybody could contribute to this site and not understand that anything said here is put into the general public domain.
So to summarise, as far as I'm concerned lurking is a normal part of activities on the site. Indeed, doesn't the welcome to the site encourage people to jump straight into any conversation that takes their fancy?

i was an even bigger lurker at first, but then i got myself an email address and registered. i'm still a lurker though, esp on pr, where, as mentioned above, i often can't contribute anything meaningful, as i am in no position to know the accuracy of an entry on, say, pubs in Moscow. and just saying, "good entry" or, "too sparse" seems hardly adaquet(spelling, i know.) as someone else has usually already said it.

I think if you want to keep something private, the net is the last place you want to put it.

I lurked round h2g2 ages before I signed up (just the other day infact). I assumed that because this was the guide to Life, the Universe and Everything it was designed to be read.

Surely if this is a collaborative writing project, the people here are writers and want to be read. So I don't understand how they can make the distinction and say that they want some of what they put on here to be read by and other stuff to be kept private.

But then I am just a

waggy tails
Colin

I reckon that nothing here should be considered private territory. If you don't want people to read it, then don't post it. It is as simple as that. Lurking can be very useful and very instructive to the lurker and is also completely harmless to anyone whose pages, conversations etc are being lurked at (if that is the right way of putting it).

"Under no circumstances must this sentence be read". That is just plain daft isn't it?