FEAR THE FRED
Posted on 11/24/2007 6:31:16 PM PST by shrinkermd
...But every now and then, when the posters on these sites start muttering about “lurkers,” I shudder like a Soviet mole in the Pentagon. Because, yes, I lurk: I visit boards but don’t post; I read without writing; I take without giving. And I’m sorry.
If lurkers are condemned with less venom than other message-board scourges — spammers (who post ads), trolls (who promote controversy) and sock puppets (who burnish their own reputations under aliases) — this may be only because lurkers are ubiquitous. .
But lurking is very not in the spirit of interactive media. When Michael Hirschorn recently praised Facebook in an article in The Atlantic — “You have to give information to get information” — he admired, in essence, the tariffs Facebook levies on lurking. Online, you’re clearly supposed to interact, not hide, eavesdrop and slink away.
As a lurker, moreover, I’ve sinned. I’ve sat idly by while regular posters slagged off shows or people I like. I’ve encountered perilous misinformation I could have corrected, complaints by sufferers I could have reassured and threats by bullies I could have censured — and all the while I’ve said nothing. Is lurking immoral or even a little bit criminal?
Occasionally I become immensely afraid of getting caught, dragged from my laptop and pilloried like a common sock puppet. Yeah, you’d better believe the recent Sock Puppet Crackdown affected me. When Lee Siegel of The New Republic was suspended from his job last year for pseudonymously writing things like, “Siegel is brave, brilliant” on his blog on the magazine’s Web site, and when this year the Whole Foods chief executive John Mackey was majorly busted for hyping his own company’s stock under a fake name, message-board misconduct started to seem worse than private mischief. It could be disgraceful.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I’ve not heard of lurkers getting the troll treatment.
I think the term she is looking for is "Peeping Tom"
It's a sign of the death of the dinosaur media. The NYT Magazine author/blogger wishes that there were more comments that agreed with hers.
Cheers
ping!
I’m lurking on this thread.
Trolls are people of the lie... dems who pretend they're conservatives... etc. Controversy is part of a fair game - lying's not.
Virginia, the money your parents spent on your education was wasted.
I’m truly sorry.
How do we know it's really you?
You dummy! Yer supposed to lurk without anyone knowing you are there!!
Like me !
Nam Vet
L
(Seriously, I really wonder how much money Virginia gets for writing such irrelevant, nonsensical stuff?)
I once questioned something about Fred Thompson and was accused of being a troll.
I was lurking, but then I felt so guilty I posted this.
GALAHAD: It’s not the real Grail?
DINGO: Oh, wicked, bad, naughty, evil Zoot! Oh, she is a naughty
person, and she must pay the penalty — and here in Castle Anthrax, we
have but one punishment for setting alight the grail-shaped beacon. You
must tie her down on a bed and spank her!
GIRLS: A spanking! A spanking!
DINGO: You must spank her well. And after you have spanked her, you
may deal with her as you like. And then, spank me.
VARIOUS GIRLS: And spank me.
And me.
And me.
DINGO: Yes, yes, you must give us all a good spanking!
GIRLS: A spanking! A spanking!
DINGO: And after the spanking, the oral sex.
GIRLS: Oral sex! Oral sex!
GALAHAD: Well, I could stay a BIT longer.
You’ve only been here a month. It doesn’t count until you’ve been posting for a few years and get called a troll for disagreeing somewhat on policy x, subsection c.
“I lurk, therefore I am.”
It happens - - more often to newbies than old timers. Still stings...
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