Unregistered "guests" on ccom. LURKERS

Bob Luken

At the moment of this posting there are 10 registered "regular" members online, and 199 unregistered "lurkers" online here on ccom. (Even one of the ten registered members is a lurker. He's been here almost a year without posting a single word.)

We are being watched.

Usually, I feel like part of a small tight-knit community here, but in truth we, as a group of regulars, are in some ways like a reality TV show. We are not alone. People are watching us. At any moment we are greatly outnumbered buy the lurkers. I feel a little weird about this from time to time.

danielzreyes

Attention Lurkers!
If you've been lurking for at least, lets say ..... 4 months, .... the first person to post "I want a Stogiestand" in this very thread, I'll gladly send you one.
Readyyyyy Go!

let's see what happens

YankeeMan

I've been lurking... honest! Does that count? :-)

danielzreyes

YankeeMan:

I've been lurking... honest! Does that count? :-)

PM me your addy

jd50ae

Bob Luken:

At the moment of this posting there are 10 registered "regular" members online, and 199 unregistered "lurkers" online here on ccom. (Even one of the ten registered members is a lurker. He's been here almost a year without posting a single word.)

We are being watched.

Usually, I feel like part of a small tight-knit community here, but in truth we, as a group of regulars, are in some ways like a reality TV show. We are not alone. People are watching us. At any moment we are greatly outnumbered buy the lurkers. I feel a little weird about this from time to time.

Sorry Bob. One of them is me. I have been watching you so I could pounce....

bearb

Bob, realize that some people leave their computers on, open to a tab of c.com for no other reason then 'just cause they did' and that they are not really sitting there 'watching' as it might appear. At the moment, i would hazard to say that i have 3 devices that are on ccom. Actually, 4, as i have 2 laptops, the ipad and my phone. Not sure if they are all logged in as i do run 'crap cleaner' now and again to clear the cache on them.
As per ccom members without a lot of posts, please do remember that many people prefer to read and do not feel the need to comment on every thread or comment.
I used to confidently say that over the years i had read every post in every thread...but the last year has made that impossible to even try. Many of the threads now read like a on-going story, and are not quite as factual, opinion or review postings. This is neither better, nor worse, just different and i do a lot more skimming and way less reading of the threads then i used to.

Rain

I leave my computer on a lot, so a lot of the time it says I'm here, I'm not.Could get in to the whole post count and new forum thing.....but it's Sunday, have to recharge :)Not directing that at you Barry, just talking about in general. We've already gone down that road

bearb

Rain:

I leave my computer on a lot, so a lot of the time it says I'm here, I'm not.Could get in to the whole post count and new forum thing.....but it's Sunday, have to recharge

Randy, not sure if the 'post count' thing was aimed at what i said...hope not, as that was not my intent. I was responding to the original thought/idea of '(Even one of the ten registered members is a lurker. He's been here almost a year without posting a single word.)"

I was just trying to express a possible explanation as to how some people can lurk for years and not actually post.

Rain

Bah, my edit came too late. Read what I posted and tried to clarify. My bad!

bearb

Got it, guess i missed that last line. Me bad!

bearb

k....i am not posting on this again! Although it does pad my postcount!

Rain

Barry's over here fluffing like a pro.

PAtoNH

also keep in mind that some folks aren't always signed in, so they appear as guests.

bearb

Rain:

Barry's over here fluffing like a pro.

For sure i am! @ my 20 posts/month average i will hit 1000 by early September of THIS year!

ShadowInTheMoon

I do lurk a lot, but i do read nearly every thread. I dont post on a lot of them because i dont feel like id add anything to the convo and posting "nice bomb" on every bomb seems lame

Rain

ShadowInTheMoon:

I do lurk a lot, but i do read nearly every thread. I dont post on a lot of them because i dont feel like id add anything to the convo and posting "nice bomb" on every bomb seems lame

Nice!Sorry, I'm lame.

flowbee

Rain:

ShadowInTheMoon:

I do lurk a lot, but i do read nearly every thread. I dont post on a lot of them because i dont feel like id add anything to the convo and posting "nice bomb" on every bomb seems lame

Nice!Sorry, I'm lame.

Me too, Im just happy to be a part of this forum, and comments on those hits I think are nice, well, I just say it!!

J.S.

flowbee:

Rain:

ShadowInTheMoon:

I do lurk a lot, but i do read nearly every thread. I dont post on a lot of them because i dont feel like id add anything to the convo and posting "nice bomb" on every bomb seems lame

Nice!Sorry, I'm lame.

Me too, Im just happy to be a part of this forum, and comments on those hits I think are nice, well, I just say it!!

I understand, I don't post a lot either, unless I can add a something. I haven't gotten into the trades and bombs. I will post if I really think someone has went above and beyond but not often. But the difference here is that we do post. I think that is is the issue. If you have been just lurking, can you add something or get invovled in a discussion in some helpful way? Why not join us? Lot's of great people here.

raisindot

Bob Luken:

At the moment of this posting there are 10 registered "regular" members online, and 199 unregistered "lurkers" online here on ccom. (Even one of the ten registered members is a lurker. He's been here almost a year without posting a single word.)

We are being watched.

Usually, I feel like part of a small tight-knit community here, but in truth we, as a group of regulars, are in some ways like a reality TV show. We are not alone. People are watching us. At any moment we are greatly outnumbered buy the lurkers. I feel a little weird about this from time to time.

That's almost always the way it is with online forums. You get a very small circle of regular contributors, and the vast majority are either lurkers or people who register, sign in, and stay signed in forever and never come back. I admit there are a number of forums I've signed up for where I rarely if ever go anymore.

Point of proof: For one of my clients I'm involved in launching a new forum for a particular professional segment. We're in beta mode now and have 500 registered members, but only 7 or 8 actually contribute.

brianetz1

raisindot:

Bob Luken:

At the moment of this posting there are 10 registered "regular" members online, and 199 unregistered "lurkers" online here on ccom. (Even one of the ten registered members is a lurker. He's been here almost a year without posting a single word.)

We are being watched.

Usually, I feel like part of a small tight-knit community here, but in truth we, as a group of regulars, are in some ways like a reality TV show. We are not alone. People are watching us. At any moment we are greatly outnumbered buy the lurkers. I feel a little weird about this from time to time.

That's almost always the way it is with online forums. You get a very small circle of regular contributors, and the vast majority are either lurkers or people who register, sign in, and stay signed in forever and never come back. I admit there are a number of forums I've signed up for where I rarely if ever go anymore.

Point of proof: For one of my clients I'm involved in launching a new forum for a particular professional segment. We're in beta mode now and have 500 registered members, but only 7 or 8 actually contribute.

What he said. I have been a member of various forums for the better part of the last 20 years. You always have a core group that push the conversation and shape the topics on the forum, a group of old time regulars that have gone by the wayside for whatever reason who come back and complain that the forum isn't what it used to be, a few overexcited newbies going crazy with responses and new threads, the fore mentioned users that login for a specific reason but don't come back, and then a bunch of people that watch the boards but never comment.

the key to a healthy forum is coaxing out those lurkers who might not be like those newbies that just jump right in to join up and contribute. So i agree LURKER, feel free to come by and join the convo.

SleevePlz

I would imagine many of the "guests" are people that just googled a cigar review, humidor issue, etc and are reading a specific thread. If you look at the "Who is Online", many of the pages being viewed are ancient posts that one wouldn't find just casually browsing the site. I think it's actually kind of fun to see what people are digging up in that list.

webmost

All guests should be registered and require a background check. There should be a three day waiting period before you invite your guest. Assault guests should be prohibited. And we need to crack down on sales at guest shows. Remember: When guests are illegal only criminals will have guests.

Except when the DOJ sells unregistered assault guests to Mexican drug cartels. Then we turn a blind eye.

raisindot

webmost:

All guests should be registered and require a background check. There should be a three day waiting period before you invite your guest. Assault guests should be prohibited. And we need to crack down on sales at guest shows. Remember: When guests are illegal only criminals will have guests.

Except when the DOJ sells unregistered assault guests to Mexican drug cartels. Then we turn a blind eye.

Hmmmm...just occurred to me that there's another reason why people don't participate.

Bob Luken

Haha. Yes, maybe we are just too scary for them.

Amos Umwhat

SleevePlz:

I would imagine many of the "guests" are people that just googled a cigar review, humidor issue, etc and are reading a specific thread. If you look at the "Who is Online", many of the pages being viewed are ancient posts that one wouldn't find just casually browsing the site. I think it's actually kind of fun to see what people are digging up in that list.

That was interesting. I don't think I'd ever done that before.

when I first signed up for the forum, I can't even remember why I did, I didn't expect to ever really get into it. It seemed odd, to me. It was a couple or three months, I think, before I started actually looking at threads, etc., and then taking part. I did want to find folks to talk cigars with, though. As I'm sure you all know, the population at large is usually largely ignorant of any factual information about our hobby, and are prone to all sorts of superstitions regarding cigars, and those who smoke them.

I suppose a lot of people just never get started at it, and I wonder what those registered as being "online" are actually doing? Maybe they're just checking out the DD or something?

Mild_Mannered_Reporter

Amos Umwhat:

SleevePlz:

I would imagine many of the "guests" are people that just googled a cigar review, humidor issue, etc and are reading a specific thread. If you look at the "Who is Online", many of the pages being viewed are ancient posts that one wouldn't find just casually browsing the site. I think it's actually kind of fun to see what people are digging up in that list.

That was interesting. I don't think I'd ever done that before.

when I first signed up for the forum, I can't even remember why I did, I didn't expect to ever really get into it. It seemed odd, to me. It was a couple or three months, I think, before I started actually looking at threads, etc., and then taking part. I did want to find folks to talk cigars with, though. As I'm sure you all know, the population at large is usually largely ignorant of any factual information about our hobby, and are prone to all sorts of superstitions regarding cigars, and those who smoke them.

I suppose a lot of people just never get started at it, and I wonder what those registered as being "online" are actually doing? Maybe they're just checking out the DD or something?

Sometimes, we just get too busy to post.

rsherman24

SleevePlz:

I would imagine many of the "guests" are people that just googled a cigar review, humidor issue, etc and are reading a specific thread. If you look at the "Who is Online", many of the pages being viewed are ancient posts that one wouldn't find just casually browsing the site. I think it's actually kind of fun to see what people are digging up in that list.

Now that is too much information to know what pages people are looking at. I can't believe all you guys were looking at the bum thread again.

jsnake

I am openly creepy and stalking a majority of you. No need to hide it.

raisindot

rsherman24:

Now that is too much information to know what pages people are looking at. I can't believe all you guys were looking at the bum thread again.

I'd be a lot more worried if we WEREN'T looking at the thread.