silent majority

[caroljane]

I am just wondering, what are the advantages of joining a forum, when you never want to participate in it? It appears that a huge number of forum members (not just here but on any site) never make any posts.

I don't understand why that is, when you can get all the same information that members get simply as a browser.

Maybe Internet Market Analysis has the answer. Michael?

[Bryce]

I post very infrequently because I often agree with the subject matter. But Objectivist Living is also like a news aggregator: interesting content is posted all the time.

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[caroljane]

I post very infrequently because I often agree with the subject matter. But Objectivist Living is also like a news aggregator: interesting content is posted all the time.

edit

Yes, I agree. But you do post; sometimes you just want to chip in and agree or disagree, like a lot of infrequent posters. It is the ones who take the trouble to sign in but never want to say anything that I wonder about .

[syrakusos]

It is the ones who take the trouble to sign in but never want to say anything that I wonder about .

It may be a habit, perhaps rooted in household manners. My own experience online is that I might run into a message board while googling for information, but if I intend to read it regularly, I sign up. I never thought about just reading without signing in or signing on. It is a way to introduce yourself to your host, even if you do not participate in the conversation.

These discussion boards evolved from BBSes of the 80s and 90s and for those, you did have to sign on in order just to read. Once signed on, you might be allowed to read without posting until approved. Now, with blogging, we have some of that kind of filtering. I started a WordPress archive of my Blogspot posts just because it made commenting easier on the blogs I visit. I log in to WordPress, then visit the blogs. If I want to post, I can.

Of course, with blogging, reading - not posting - is the primary user/visitor activity. Anyway, even in the BBS days many more people signed up than posted.

Not everyone is confident. Not everyone needs the visibility. Not everyone thinks you are worth responding to. Different people are different.