Lurkers And Posters

A common non-occurance in the blogosphere is the contribution of the lurker. A lurker is anyone that visits a blog, bulletin board, or newsgroup, but won't comment.

Frustrated bloggers may, occasionally, curse the lurkers.

There is, at least, one reason that lurkers are so prevalent. That is the fact that they feel no sense of ownership over, or community with, the blog in question. By design, blogs are the sole property of the blogger. An effect of that is that internet dwellers lack a sense of close proximity to the blogs that they frequent.

I leave a comment on a blog, and I may, or may not, check back to that particular post for a response. Therefore, I myself, am a sometimes-lurker. Part of the cause of lurking may be a limitation of web technology. True, we have RSS feeds, and email-me features that will notify us when a comment has been made. But, we really have to be committed to a particular blog, before we'll subscribe to one of these services and clutter our inbox, or our feed reader.

And, just because a particular blogger posts frequently, on subjects that enthrall us, does not mean that they respond to any, or all, comments on their post. An active blogger can alienate their visitors by posting often, but responding rarely.

When I began blogging on Davis County, I didn't expect much of a response. After all, Davis County is smaller, and less populous than Salt Lake County. Demographically, we aren't the most internet savvy. People here fall asleep at the mere mention of the word, 'politics'.

However, I've had a paradigm shift. I no longer think that Davis County plays second fiddle to anyone. We are an amazing group of people, that have as rich, and as old a history as anyone in the State. We are politically active, and we do care. Although, we are all, sometimes, lurkers.

We have something to say in Davis County. The question is, will we say it to each other?