Lurkers Appreciation Thread

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Ministry of Testingā€™s Founder @rosie once said:

Lurkers are people too

And Rosieā€™s article is an incredible resource to reframe what it means to be a lurker in the testing community.

We should continue to celebrate lurkers. They donā€™t have to participate in the ways we might traditionally think about participation. For example, the 42 ways someone might contribute to the MoT Community.

This thread is to share an appreciation for the lurkers out there. Active folks like me and many others see you and we welcome you, always. :raised_hands:t2:

If you consider yourself a lurker and are up for saying hi on this thread, please go for it. :slightly_smiling_face: :wave:t2:

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Iā€™m fine with lurkers while leechers are problematic.
Even I was a lurker and the beginning.

And are we not all lurkers from time to time? :slight_smile:
e.g. when you just read a thread without interacting.

Also I see lurking<>active as spectrum.
A like on a comment might not contribute much by content, but is already a low-level contribution (giving feedback, appreciation).

Lurker/-ing is the reservoir where more active people grew from.

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I have a YT channel, just for fun really, and I now have been asked to help out with 2 club websites to grow their social reach, so this has been on my heart for a while. So I am coming to love my lurkers. However much I would like to know who they are, I donā€™t want to scare them off. I think the conversations they have in other spaces are super valuable, but more valuable is if I can make the lurker feel they can continue to lurk, and continue to learn. Lurkers lurk in order to learn. So letā€™s work out what they like and keep putting that out there so they can use it in their offline conversations. Rosie raises some awesome points and ideas.

It can be super disheartening when you make content and nobody seems to engage or view. And I think just pushing that upload button every week or so, randomly and not like a robot, will keep them coming back. Donā€™t upload just because you have not uploaded for a whole month, the lurker wants fresh stuff. There are millions of blogs out there that are totally copy-pasta. The lurker has no qualms with going elsewhere if you overload them, as they have no ā€œinvestmentā€ in your content. So keep it relevant, and keep the faith I say.

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