fatrabbit - 11:13 am on Jun 15, 2006 (gmt 0)

I've been lurking in this forum for a few weeks now, and since I've stepped out of the shadows I think the original poster achieved his goal!

However, the main reason people like me lurk isn't lack of confidence, or necessarily fear of ridicule, but lack of subject knowledge. I can't really post on subjects I know very little about. In time that may change and there will be a natural conversion of lurkers into contributory posters. Others just lurk and always will.

My opinions on forums answering too many questions and the overbearing quality of authoritative posters/experts. Some threads are questions, and others are opinion based discussions. As has already been mentioned, a question that is answered authoritatively very often doesn’t need further posts, this can be a good thing as the forum is noted for it’s subject authority, and valuable information isn’t buried in or diluted by ‘me too’ posts. Opinion based discussions by definition don’t have one answer and therefore anyone can contribute and enhance the thread, forums need a mixture of both.