COP Pole

[douggiestyle]

interesting reasearch.
i have not finished your column. if this is answered and ive missed it i apologize.

one hole that ive found in your analysis concerning lurkers is the failure to address that a participation in 15% of read threads may be all that is required to answer questions correctly. keep in mind alot of the reef/aquarium related forums/threads are question and answer based.

today ive read through apx. 20 different threads but have choosen to reply to only two. the other 18 where answered or dealt with correctly. they may have been a topic that i care little enough about to comment. though, had i noticed any bad info being given i would have most definnately put in my two cents.

im not sure what this could add to your research. but i would think that this could be used as an example of the efficiency forums offer.

my dislike of lurkers occurs when i visit a forum that has 100 members. i post a question as a new member and all 100 members take the time to read my question. many days or weeks pass and no comment is made. and its the only new post in said amount of time. now it could be they think im an idiot. and they would be correct lol. i think you understand my point.

when i start a new thread with a question and someone gives me an answer. and no one else reads the thread i get nervous about trusting that answer. the flip side is when i get an answer and 100 plus other people read the thread i feel more confidant with the answer. if it was incorrect i would hope/think that one of those 100 plus people would have responded to the contrary.

[BrianPlankis]

Doug,

Thanks for visiting for forum You do bring up a good point about many posts being a Q and A type and typically are answered within the first few replies. But many lurkers still read the replies after posting as stopped.

Another good point about posting on a lower volume thread and no one replying. Unfortunately there is no way to know what the other people are thinking if they don't reply. It could be they don't know the answer, or they feel they are not knowledgeable and shouldn't respond, etc, etc.

Yet another good point about maybe only getting one reply, but if 100 people read it and no one else replies that the answer might be good. Of course, it could be that the 99 people that read it besides you might all have the wrong idea That is the funny thing about this hobby (and many others of course).

Thanks for the insightful input.

Brian