'Lurkers’ – who needs them? Should they be booted out or should we embrace people’s differences (some people are readers more than producer/writers?). Can’t there be different roles for the members of a community?
As in real life, I think there can definitely be different roles for different members of a community. Some users may just be using forums for support, educational or entertainment purposes and may genuinely have nothing to say. However, people IRL who have less to say are still visible while the danger online is that members of the community cannot see who these ‘Lurkers’ are and don’t know who is reading the information posted. This could result in members being less willing to contribute and witholding information they would otherwise post.
Various online communities have posting systems to try and combat such behaviour-Yahoo! Answers uses a points system to ensure participation, post counts are often displayed on message boards, and ratings such as ‘newbie’ are given to members who post infrequently. As discussed in Qc (http://kayrodge.blogspot.com/2009/02/week-4-blanchard-sence-of-community.html), these infrequent posters are then less frequently replied to and often face hostility from regular members, ensuring there are consequences for their parasitic behaviour.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Whilst Lurkers can be annoying, I think that when joining a new online community looking at what's been said before can be a useful way of gauging what type of community it is, and to see what is acceptable and what is not. By looking but not commenting you are able to see what you're getting yourself in for, and so you can decide if you'd want to start contributing more or not.
ReplyDeleteYes, but as this NMC blog network proves, you can't develop a community if no-one appears to be out there (because lurkers are invisible -therefore not members).
ReplyDeleteA critical mass of members who contribute is required for any community, otherwise, it will wither and die. This is what annoys committed online communitarians -lurkers take content for their own use and amusement -but they do nothing to sustain the source of that content.
It's a bit like the people who move into a village but don't use the post-office, grocers or pub regularly, then complain when they all close down one-by-one. If you want the benefits of a community, you have to be prepared to work for them -some would say.