Most of You Are Lurkers ~ BitterSweetLife

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Most of You Are Lurkers

The research is finally in, and it confirms what my own personal supercomputer revealed over a year ago: Some of you aren't representing:

In most online systems, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action.

Now might be a golden opportunity to clear the air, seeing as I've given you this great opening. :)
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

And...if you use an rss reader like a good techy geek would (like I do) then it's even easier to read and never contribute. Thanks for the motivation man.

Anonymous said...

Does the contribution have to be substantive?

colleen said...

well...i leave a little remark here and there!
i have this nagging fear of over-representing. But at least i show my face when i feel so led...your posts often provoke thoughts or comments in my mind...usually i just don't feel eloquent enough to actually write anything.
but I know what it's like to have what you write be appreciated and understood (or not), so occasionally i'll overstep my qualms and type away.

like now. (:

AJ said...

if you use an rss reader...

I suspect that RSS, in relation to leaving comments (or not) is an issue for quite a few of us these days. Hopefully the next generation of RSS readers will work more hand-in-glove with blogging platforms...being able to comment from inside a reader would be cool.

Does the contribution have to be substantive?

Ha ha ha.

i have this nagging fear of over-representing.

That's the kind of fear you take out back and put down. ;) I appreciate your modesty, though.

Charles Churchill said...

Does the contribution have to be substantive?

Absolutely. You may not know it, but this site had a complex comment screening process. All comments submitted to Bitterwhatevertheheckthissiteiscalled get scanned by the Bittertron 3000, a supercomputer so powerful that it once checkmated Garry Kasparov in one move. A full explanation of it's inner workings and behavior would take years, but in short, when a comment is submitted, the Bittertron reads it, groks it, and then, and this is the tricky part, does nothing at all*. I know, it's hard to grasp, it's so Zen-like, so ephemeral. Why even have the Bittertron involved at all? What purposes does it serve**? These are excellent questions indeed.


* This is somewhat inaccurate. Occasionally the Bittertron 3000 introduces spelling errors. And bad puns.

** One could ask these questions of many things. Paris Hilton, the Wiggles, Benny Hinn all come to mind.

AJ said...

"You may not know it, but this site had a complex comment screening process..."

That's just hilarious.

 

Culture. Photos. Life's nagging questions. - BitterSweetLife