I think there’s a good argument to be made for welcoming lurkers to an online community. Some people prefer not to start dancing as soon as they enter a party. They’d like to watch for a while, and see how things go before joining in. They might like to see which group they’d like to join, or whether they want to participate at all. Requiring everyone to register and expecting everyone to participate at a particular level seems counterproductive to me. Welcoming lurkers means welcoming people at whatever level of participation they choose. Feeling welcome means that lurkers may be more likely to step up their level of participation when they’re ready.
Martin Reed’s suggestions for welcoming lurkers and encouraging them to contribute to the community are helpful. I especially liked his suggestion of having a new member forum that’s monitored more frequently by community moderators, so new people can talk to one another and know they’ll get a response from a moderator if needed. He also suggests sending a community newsletter to highlight especially good content and jog the memories of those people who meant to contribute but just haven’t gotten around to it. Several people commenting on Reed’s post mentioned that they lurk on technical communities because they don’t want to ask “dumb questions”—so they read other people’s questions and get the answers they need that way. Learning enough to feel that you’re up to speed may take longer than just getting comfortable with a site and the community.
I think most communities are the better for requiring users to register when they want to contribute to the community. Claiming an identity in the community means users belong, at least in a little way. It also means that their contributions can be tracked and noted by others. John Grohol makes several good points about user identities, including that the process of registering is in itself a barrier that may dissuade some casual mischief-makers (without being so difficult that it deters legitimate users), and that building in a reputation or rating system to the community will give members incentive to contribute.
I agree that lurkers shouldn’t be shunned from online communities. In many cases it takes people time to build up enough courage to actively participate in an online community, especially in one that requires specialized knowledge of a specific topic. Also some people may never want to personally contribute to the community, but may simple enjoy reading the posts of others, especially if they are highly informative. Whatever the reasons, lurkers should always be welcomed because to do otherwise may jeopardize the existence of an online community. On another note, could we please change the name “lurker” to something with a more positive connotation. Maybe we can change it to “wallflower” or some other word that doesn’t sound so creepy!
ReplyDeleteIt's been my experience that when people post infrequently, it's because they wait until they have something substantive to say. I certainly prefer that type of semi-lurker to someone who has an opinion on every topic whether they know anything about it or not.
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