at one time in our online lives, we may have been, or is, a member of online groups, e-mail discussion lists or whatever they call it now. one could either be active or inactive. active status is tagged on those members who always have something to say; witty, sensible on-topic, off-topic, and everything else in between. these are those members who are very much attached and who feel strongly about the topics and issues posted on their respective groups. and consequently, log in and post away their opinion, dissenting or otherwise, with or without smileys.
on the other hand, there are those who are inactive, those who are fondly called lurkers. these are the silent majority. those who just devour on information they prefer to read that are usually being heatedly discussed in their group. frequency of post or participation doesn't count on their attribute, these are plain readers. contrary to its counterpart, which have received little, or no, keen interest from others, the lurkers, are now becoming a mystery that they already are. especially that, i believe, they make up almost 90% percent of the total members of each group.
studying the demography of these majority of users could be interesting. i bet there had been attempts to conduct such. i know, web technologies can gather enough data to bankroll such endevour. however, i wouldn't delve into that lest i now prefer web 2.0 over os390 or web-based apps over mainframe. or lest i would want to bury myself with statistical analysis techinicalities and numbers of this phenomenon.
for now, i would just like to somehow answer and satisfy some of my growing curiousity. the question that nags eternally: what is it in US lurkers that holds us from indulging ourselves and others into a simple exchange of ideas?
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