[Air-l] we need a better word than lurking

[Lois Ann Scheidt]

Call me old-fashioned but the term doesn't bother me, and I'm a 
"Professional-Lurker."  LOL  I stick with the term "lurker" because it 
ties into the existing literature and media representation of those who 
watch but don't actively "talk" in online spaces.  I think that is 
important.  However, I do think we need to define the term so the 
meaning can move for its pejorative implications to a more positive 
definition.

I often prefer to "redefine" a term rather then to let someone else's 
definition control my usage.

Lois Ann Scheidt

Doctoral Student - School of Library and Information Science, Indiana
University, Bloomington IN USA

Adjunct Instructor - School of Informatics, IUPUI, Indianapolis IN USA and
IUPUC, Columbus IN USA

Webpage:  http://www.loisscheidt.com
Blog:  http://www.professional-lurker.com


Quoting Nancy Baym <nbaym at ku.edu>:

> Funny you mention that. Just a few minutes ago I was working on a
> paper and when I got to the point where I wanted to talk about
> "lurkers" I stopped and chose "invisible participants" instead.
>
> Nancy
>
>
>> John Veitch gave us a useful post that showed that most people Lurk.
>> Altho John didn't explicitly say so, the general implication is that
>> Lurking Is a Bad Thing.
>> But imagine if everybody was actively contributing all the time. We'd be
>> filled with noise. (As it is, I wonder about some of the posts on this
>> list, including mine;-))
>> I absolutely don't want my 13-year old cousin (whom I love dearly) to
>> contribute to the Social Networks article, or probably anything else. Nor,
>> in fact, do I want some ignorant person to contribute.
>> I am not for credentialism, but I am for knowledge and expertise.
>>
>> Indeed, 99% of the time, I am a Reader only of Wikipedia articles. I try
>> only to contribute when I actually know something, like Social Network,
>> Bronx High School of Science, and Barbra Streisand.
>>
>> YMMV
>>
>>  Barry Wellman
>>  _____________________________________________________________________
>>
>>   Barry Wellman   S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology   NetLab Director
>>   Centre for Urban & Community Studies          University of Toronto
>>   455 Spadina Avenue    Toronto Canada M5S 2G8    fax:+1-416-978-7162
>>   wellman at chass.utoronto.ca  http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman
>>         for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php
>>  _____________________________________________________________________
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> The air-l at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
>> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
>> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at:
>> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>>
>> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
>> http://www.aoir.org/
>
> _______________________________________________
> The air-l at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at:
> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/
>