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11/10/2012

Lurking

Another annual Love our Lurkers Day has come and gone.  The cyber event, initiated seven years ago in our part of the cyber universe by Bonnie of My Bottom Smarts, is ostensibly an opportunity for those who "lurk" on our various blogs to come out of hiding and say "hello."  While I don't participate, and haven't for years, I observe the festivities played out on many blogs around the circle.  This year, I note two "new" manifestations around the whole business.

This year, it seems that there were a fair number of bloggers who chose to offer various incentives to their lurkers.  Apparently, many people have determined that it is not sufficient to offer an invitation to the ubiquitous lurker.  The consensus seems to be shifting toward the belief that the only way to get the hidden ones to show themselves is to bribe them into offering a word or two.

The other phenomenon that I noticed this year is that some bloggers feel disappointed in the "turn out" they got out of the event.  I saw several discussions about how many actual lurkers commented, and there is a bit of consternation that, in fact, many of the LOL Day comments are left, not by lurkers, but by regular reader/commenters just making the rounds and saying, "Hi" to friends and neighbors.  Again, the feeling I get is that the "invitation" doesn't seem to accomplish what is wanted.

I, myself, am bemused by the continuing dedication to this exercise.  By definition, a lurker is someone who reads but does not contribute.  At the instant that a blogger manages to convince a lurker to offer some form of participation in the discussion, that individual ceases to be a "lurker."  So, LOL Day is really not about loving those lurkers as much as it is, in reality, about converting them to participating partners in our blogging enterprise.  Too, in a more basic, pre-Internet sense, the act of lurking is about remaining hidden; existing furtively and unobserved; sneaking unseen around the edges; even lying in ambush.  Much as we might like to imagine that there are great, unseen hoardes of FRIENDS waiting to be met (just add water and stir...), the truth is that we do not know, cannot know, the motivation of those who lurk around our various blogs.

I have "met" some wonderful people through the act of writing this blog.  There are people who have become companions and even "friends," albeit with the caveat that we've never laid eyes on one another.  For those people, I have a deep affection and an enduring gratitude.  Those relationships are valuable to me, and I appreciate the effort invested in building relationship by the reader on the other side of the screen.  Lurkers however, do not enter into that sort of interaction.  They come here to read, and I choose to make this place open and available in that way.  I can "see" those readers in my statistics, but I know nothing at all about those people.  They are, for me, "audience" in some sense, but they are not people that I know or care about very much.

I think that, for many who blog, Love Our Lurkers Day is sort of fun.  It is an Internet variant of a neighborhood garage sale, or maybe that convivial Halloween Trick or Treating sort of wandering from house to house that happens in some places on the evening of October 31.  Sometimes, lurkers observing the merriment might decide to take a chance and join the party, but it isn't about them...  LOL Day is about us.  The community likes to do it -- and so it continues.

swan

9 comments:

  1. Hi Swan, it's funny, I was thinking kind of the same thing. It's not so much that we love our lurkers as that we want them to de-lurk so they can become our friends.

    I've done it before and might again, but this year it didn't appeal.

    -sin

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  2. Anonymous6:16 PM

    I occasionally comment on your posts, so now I'm not really considered a lurker but a friendly reader? Whatever the name, I enjoy visiting.
    Thanks
    Joyce

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    Replies
    1. Joyce, if you comment, you are, by definition, not a lurker. And as for "friendly," that is about behavior...

      swan

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  3. It is what it is. I lurked and really didn't know if my comments were welcomed or if I were jumping into a conversation to which I was not invited. We didn't have a LOL at that time. I would have appreciated it. Of course I have a big mouth and eventually joined anyway. But some people need a nudge.

    PK

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  4. weirdgirl9:51 PM

    You raise some interesting points that I hadn't really considered before. I have a blog myself, for my photography, and whilst my stats show that people occasionally come by my dusty corner of the interwebs they rarely make their presence felt. I often wish they would.I 'lurked' on many blogs for a long time (including here!) until I felt 'brave' enough to contribute my 2 cents in the form of a comment, though I wanted to long before I did! I agree with PK that sometimes some of the anonymous audience need a bit of a nudge to put their hand up and be 'seen'. :)
    Fond regards
    weirdgirl

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    Replies
    1. weirdgirl, I am glad you "put your hand up," in time, and I will continue to insist that it is not the "nudge" that is needed, but the open invitation and assurance that people are welcome to engage. Perhaps that is just semantics on my part. But...

      swan

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  5. i agree with your points, but i wanted to play along cos it's my very first LOL day :)

    i admit that it was the thrill of seeing if anyone would say hi... but also, realising that some people needed a push.and invite. and so, I'm kinda glad that i had so much fun with it :)

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    Replies
    1. Fondles -- I think an invitation is a kind thing to extend, but I am still not entirely sure that anyone actually NEEDS a push. In my experience, people join the conversation when they can; when something calls out to them; when they feel that they have something valuable or valid to contribute... And, all of that assumes that they actually WANT to participate in the first place.

      swan

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  6. I kind of use it as an opportunity to tell my friends whose blogs I read but don't say much on - HI, I'M STILL HERE! :)

    My husband raised your same points a couple of times (he didn't remember saying the same thing last year)- but it's fun to blog hop and say hi. :)

    HI, I'M STILL HERE. :)

    ReplyDelete

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