This almost intangible issue of Lurking strongly minds me of the famous ‘If a tree falls in the forest, and no-one hears it….’ quotestion.
I’m using the premise that blogging, rather like teaching, is a performance, and therefore contains an element of ego. You’ve delivered, with passion, the world premiere of your 10-act monolgue. We’ll attended, by all accounts, and you rush out to survey the review section of the next mornings papers. Nothing! How strange – you’d posted notices in all the right places, and pressed all the correct buttons. How exasperating.
I’m no longer sure where I’m going with this reply, but at least I’m not lurking. and a response is a construction, as long as it’s not a destruction, an assassinative bullet fired with malice from behind the curtain of a premiere theatre’s private box – the bad review, the negative comment that could stop a blogger in one’s tracks.
And does the fact that the chosen label – ‘Lurker’, offers up negative connotations (like a dangerous on-the-run concealed stalker – ugh!) reflect our disapproving pre-judgement? ‘Lurker’ sounds a bit Psycho Norman Bates, to me. How about the friendlier slapstick Laurel & Hardy comedy potential ‘Loiterer’?. It’s not for me to say.
Should I post this reply? Or simply ‘Loit’ in the background? Heads, ego wins, I post. And tails…well, you may never know. X