DaveZuls - 7:12 am on Jun 17, 2006 (gmt 0)

Thanks Roger,

This is a good conversation. I have been lurking daily on several SEO forums and dozens of blogs since 2000, but I almost never post. I’ve spend about 4 hours a day or more just lurking for years and years. Why?

Although I type very slowly, I also tend to give long winded thoughts on a topic. I have a hard time just spitting it out. I’ll spend two hours or more trying to craft the perfectly written post or response. I know I don’t have time for that sort of thing so I don’t allow myself to be drawn in to the conversation.

If I were to start posting, my 4 hours of lurking on SEO forums and blogs could easily turn into a full time job.

I don’t multi task very well but I feel the need to reply quickly. This can create a disruption at work because I’m easily distracted by SEO conversations. The rare times when I do post, I usually get nothing else done. This is because I tend to get obsessive about the topic and thread. I’ll read the entire thread several times just to make sure I didn’t miss a detail or key thought. Then I’ll read and reread every post I write several times before I post it because I’m self conscious about grammar and spelling errors. I’ll research the topic extensively between posts so I don’t sound like an idiot, etc…

A few times I have crafted a well thought out and detailed post on a difficult topic just to receive short, vague replies from people who don’t understand the question at all, miss the point entirely or get hung up on a minor detail that isn’t relevant. I have almost never gotten a good answer. I usually just get stupid questions about my original question but no help.

Most replies to questions are non answers and are along the line of…
“I guess it all depends on what your definition of “is” – is”
(Thanks, that response was Soooo helpful)
Sometimes I think people just slap up a thoughtless post so they can see their member statistics go up by one more post.

I’ve also posted an idea just to get a conversation started a few times but again, I have always been disappointed with the quality of responses.

It’s taken me over an hour to get this far with my thought because I’ve rewritten and edited it several times. It’s a good thing it’s Friday or I wouldn’t get any work done tomorrow.

BTW – Nothing personal but, I don’t particularly like this forum. That’s probably the main reason I don’t participate over here. I don’t see any value in paid membership so I usually avoid this place. I followed a link that Barry posted on the SE Roundtable but I usually don’t spend much time here.

Many of the most knowledgeable WebmasterWorld members like you & Graywolf who posted in this thread earlier, have blogs anyway so that’s what I usually read instead.

Aloha,
Dave.