Lurker or Viewer?

I have spent a lot of time over the past few days looking at my social media interaction in terms of being a contributor or a lurker. I think that labeling those who just watch with words with such a negative connotation...lurker or free-rider...is a little unfair. There are good reasons for being a lurker, some of which have been noted in our discussion thread, like being in the silent learning phase. Also, if we all spoke all the time, we'd crash websites daily. I think we are all lurkers and contributors to different degrees on different sites, so rather than labeling one as bad and the other as good, I think I will call those who don't speak "viewers" or "observers."

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