Who Are The Lurkers? Introduce Yourself.

[ElectroSquirrel]

I am an inveterate lurker too, on many, many boards. Hostility is a common reason. I speak in general; not specifically about this board. There is a well known phenomenon called "trolling" that tends to particularly infest boards dedicated to enthusiasm about something. Slashdot is another forum that has become famous for this.

 

This "trolls" leave messages that invite reply, or they look for minor things upon which to pounce. I am sure that this makes the trolls feel better about themselves, but it does tend to drive the other majority away. Sooner or later every board ends up with a few trolls. Unless you want to actively police the forums, you can't get rid of these. Attempts to regulate by public opinion seems to reward trolls for their behavior.

 

Just my humble opinion, (but based on 20 years experience with Usenet and BBS systems).

[iluv cockerspaniels]

Hi my name is Shana. Im from Pennsylvania. I have just started this new fun thing up until my hunt today and shattered my GPS screen when I lost my footing and my GPS went flying. Anyhow, I just wanted to say hi to you all. So much for my summer vacations.

[+Jat311andElf]

Been caching for a few months now but just barely started to dabble in the forums.

[+Folshen]

I've been quietly taking it all in for a couple years now...

[+MDAgent]

I saw the request for lurkers to introduce themselves, so I finally decided to. I'm in Northern California, and have done several caches, but have not logged any of them. I first learned about geocaching through the Magellan Detective Agency contest last year. I didn't play, I just watched.

 

Does anyone know if Magellan is doing another contest this year?

 

Also, I'm going to be in Las Vegas in June. Can anyone suggest a good geocache in that area?

[+llatnek]

Checking in, but not much to say. Wish I had found GeoCaching when I was on a one year sabbatical. 'Course I would probably be homeless by now.

Semper Fidelis, Llatnek

Ballentine, SC 29002

[+We'veLostOurMap]

I replied somewhere else before I realized this topic was here, so I guess I have de-lurked already. I just started reading the forums and have found some interesting topics, and then some not so interesting! But I will keep reading, and now I will keep replying, can't really go back after you've de-lurked!

[+Oo-v-oO]

Found a few caches several years ago but got away from the hobby. Just got a Legend C and plan on going out and participating more now. It's a fun way to get out and get exercise while seeing places you'd not otherwise see.

[Jack Ryan]

Often when discussing features of the website, the point is raised that many of the people who might feel one way, or another about a given topic never actually say anything because the forums are so hostile.

 

Another good point that often comes up is that the forum is where people come to learn about caching, and we should try give the best impression we can.

 

I'm curious to know how many people are out there quietly taking it all in.

 

There really is no topic here, so you can't post off topic. And since there is no topic, there needn't be any arguing either.

 

Feel free to use this thread to say "Hi", and introduce yourself.

Hi, I'm known on the web as Jack Ryan and I say what ever I want where ever I go.

 

I'm not much of a cache'er but I know messege boards and the more you restrict and censor one the more you choked it down. They get dull and boring and soon die.

 

If people like and respect each other they won't "want" to hurt each other's feeling and that is the best kind of board but you can't "make" it that way. The people using it have to want it to be that way.

 

I've only been here a little while but I haven't seen any thing I'd call a flame war worth getting one's pantys in a bunch over. All seems pretty civil and tame yet interesting to me.

[The Band of Brothers]

Howdy you all, kinda new to this just thought I'd say hi even though most of you wont get to number 711 or something to read this....

[+Kilroy Gang]

Okay, lurking here until I compose my questions and find the right forums. So sue me.

[wingspan1684]

Newby tadpole here. Just ordered a MeriGold today after agonising between Magellan and Garmin - Figured I can't go wrong with either.

 

Looking forward to getting out and about with my son, age 9, this coming weekend.

 

Rich J.

[+Mad Cat]

Non lurker here, yeh i raised a hollower a few times so Blah

[+Three Lost Guys]

First post, but by no means new to the Geocaching world. Been lurkin for a while now, so this seemed as good a time as any to jump in. For me geocachin is an activity to be done with friends as well as alone, thus the name Three Lost Guys, myself being lost Guys #2

[+Bahamadiver]

I called it "Giving her a little extra attention", the judge called it "stalking".....I don't know. You decide.

 

We are new to the sport. A coworker I hate introduced me to it and I have had a lot of great times since. We don't have a lot of finds, but the ones we have were great. A little over two years ago, my wife and I were hit bya drunk driver on our motorcycle and nearly killed. The rehab and getting back to a "normal" life has been very difficult. This has given us a fun way to get a little exercise and excuse to go out and walk/explore.

 

My 7 year old has really gotten excited about this and now every night she wants to go after she gets home from school. We have scheduled a show and tell for her class so that we can show others and my wife works for the local TV stationin Managemetn and has had the reporters do stories on the sport.

 

The forums are new to me. I posted a topic about a cache I was thinking of and the response was great. I am sorry if others have had a bad experience, but ours has been great. There always seems to be an a&$*@!$ in every group that tries to ruin things. Keep up the good work, and thank you all for the enjoyment you have given me and my family!

 

PS, we have a Garmin 76map with topo and city maps. Excellent first GPS and no need to get any other unit. It does more than I can do.

[+Teamhawaii1981 & blueicyrose]

Not new to the sport, but I do Caches here and there in-between homework, so I have a low total. I try to check to forums every once in a while to see what is going on in the cache world. I hope to hit the scene hard this summer after work, I miss it.

 

Probably be doing this sport forever, and I hope when I graduate law school, I will have more time on the weekends to get my total up there! Honestly, one of the funnest most relaxing activities I have ever took part in.

[+Newfiezedder]

Guess I am a lurker/ newbie. Think I am going to get a Garmin Rino 130, 2 of my friends have them so it will work pretty well. I only started a few weeks ago. Definitely good fun.

[Fergus Mor]

I'm new to this (a week) and have only visited the forums a couple times. I'll probably tend to be more of a lurker and apprehensive poster. That seems to be how I attend to the hunting and fishing forums I visit.

[+Old Salty Dog]

We lurk, though rarely... fun to see what everyone's talking about tho'!

[RandLD]

Introduced to GeoCaching by our Sunday School teachers ("CarolinaCachers"). Found some caches with them, then started caching solo. Only found a few so far, but we have a list of caches near where we live and near where we're going on vacation soon, so we'll hit some more in the near future.

 

I have a tendency to be very sporadic in my postings on all of the message boards I visit, so don't take it personally if I only show up every now and then on the boards.

 

R & L

[+MO-GEO]

Silently lurking about...

 

Thanks to everyone for all of your assistance and for sharing your first hand experience here in the forums. A special thanks to Markwell and his disciples for pointing us in the right direction when a post has already been discussed in detail.

[+generok]

It's curoius what folks do on the web... including me I guess. It's true, you simply can't post your opinion ANYWHERE without someone thinking you're an idiot. It's like that everywhere. It's a lot like standing in the middle of a city street and yelling your opinion on a topic. You will soon get yells back from the windows, but seldom will they say "your views interest me, please come up and talk to me about them".

 

This is my first post... here. I love to cache. I hate reading forums, in general, since like most I find them venues to degrade other people in public, then add a winky and make it all better.

 

I've been stung by a whole nest of hornets, waded through devil's club, and donated pints of blood to mosquitos... but I keep on caching. What goes on here won't deter most folks as the web is just a way to suck more caches, not the focus of the sport.

 

So, it's a good topic... I'm not a lurker. I'm just not interested in watching Judging Amy, so here I am, wasting time yelling my opinion in the street.

 

Generok.

Edited May 4, 2005 by generok

[+MiTuCats]

I'm not exactly new here, but haven't posted for a long time. Nor have I spent much time reading the posts in the last year or so. I think I posted once in September or October of last year in the benchmark forums and that's been the only post for a long time.

 

Originally, I came to the forums with some general questions. They were politely answered and I was treated gently as a newbie. Over time, I posted some replies myself (no idea how many) and tried to help out other newbies in the same spirit in which I had been helped.

 

Gradually, I found myself becoming disenchanted with all the sniping and flaming going on in the forums, and gradually backed away. I was particularly bothered by the bashing of the powers that be that was occurring at the time I quit reading the threads.

 

I also got very busy and was out of town a lot, so I lost track from that standpoint as well, but didn't even try to keep up because of the antagonism that seemed to prevail.

 

I'm mostly back in the forums now because I'm considering posting in the UK forum about our upcoming trip to London. I'm testing the waters and reviewing the current topics before posting on that forum. I've visited the forums several times in the last couple of months and have just been lurking and reading to catch up on stuff.

[+Phobos+Demos]

I am a lurker because I am still learning about GC ing and It takes me some time to come up with a response that I feel contributes. I am not a lurker because of people being mean to each other in posts. To add my $0.02 to that topic; there is constructive criticism and then there is just being mean. If it is constructive criticism try to learn from it. In my experence if it is someone being mean they must have much worse problems in their life and being mean is the only way they can deal with it, so just ignore them and be happy that you had a legitimate question/statement. Thanks for listening.

Phobos

Edited May 4, 2005 by Phobos+Demos

[100dollarbill]

This is my first visit to the forum. I just dropped in to see what it was like. I enjoy caching, but I'm not fanatic about it. I've found 17, in 3 states. I've placed one cache (yesterday), but it hasn't been posted on the website yet. Still waiting for the reviewer to approve it. So for now, I'll just lurk around and be inconspicuous.

 

- - 100dollarbill

[adognamedcat]

I am a total newbie to geocaching. I did use this site to research what gps unit to buy (settled on garmin legend btw). I just started an account recently to post questions.

 

As for forums, I have been to many others on many other subjects and if you think there are heated arguements here, go check out rottentomatos.com sometime. Jeez, it's just a movie.

 

Sorry, bit of a tangent there, anyway, as for people who post to complain about stuff anonomisly on a website, it is very easy to just skip past thier post. Argueing on the internet is a waste of time that could be better used by hunting for more caches!

[Team Peener]

not in the forums too much but am on the geocaching site all the time. relatively new to geocaching so lately burning lurking on the forums to get a feel for the sport.

[+JDandDD]

These days I am a lurker I suppose. I got started on BBS systems dating back to the mid-80’s when there were very few people on line and was a major poster. Through the mid to late 90’s forums were interesting and fun to be on. Sometimes there were major disagreements but rarely anything that would now be called flaming. Just differences of opinion. Then the trolls and flamers came along and took the fun and much of the good information exchange out of it. I got tired of all the flaming by those who think shouting louder makes you more meaningful.

 

The forums here have too many of that type as well. Groundspeak tries to make sure everyone is courteous but these days that’s impossible. So I read for information and contribute when I feel I have something positive to say that might not get jumped on.

[+bluprizm]

Greets & Treats Y'all~

 

Been caching since mid-January of this year. Just recently reached my 100 cache mark and placed my first cache yesteday.

 

I'm not lurking, I'm learning.

[+onetrapper]

Lurking, am I lurking or am I just finding out more about geocaching? I just started geocaching a few weeks ago thanks to my daughter, bless her heart. A friend of hers was talking about geocaching and wanted to know if I knew anyone who had a gps. I had one that I had never used, the rest as they say is history. Now I can spend more time enjoying the outdoors.

[ovoadmala]

i've been lurking on and off for, well, a long time now. first read about geocaching about three years ago when i was about 8 months pregnant -- needless to say i put off caching for a little while. i keep finding myself drifting back here, intrigued, so i finally ordered a gps yesterday to give this a shot.

 

i actually think it's good form to lurk for a while in places like this, to get to know the tenor of a forum and the expectations of participants, both here on the forum and while out caching. i know some other places where people just jump in without getting a lay of the land first, and they just end up looking like a noob. i’m sure that will never happen to me…

[+MorningWhisper]

 

Hello. My screen name is MorningWhisper and I am a lurker. Actually I'm only a lurker to this forum. On other sites, I usually have too much to say.

 

I'm brand new to Geocaching and find most everyone's input to be both educational and helpful, and sometime highly entertaining. There are some very humorous people out there and their witty comments crack me up.

 

I've only been out in the field a handful of times, but found a cache on every outing. Ok, my hunting partner found all but one first, but I was usually only a step or two behind! The first time or two we were going strictly by clues to find the treasure, then, got smart and picked up a GPS - what a difference. It absolutely amazes me how creative some of these "hiders" are. Think like a squirrel, be an ant.........

 

I'm a forum junkie who will pop in often for entertainment, but unless some comment or topic really gets to me, I will just silently float through the pages reading about everyone else's adventures and mishaps.

 

Then, when the shyness wears off, the mouth will runneth over........

[+Team MM]

Hi,

Been lurking on and off for awhile. Haven't actually gone caching yet. I have been trying to get the wife interested and think I have done it so looking forward to some nice w/e's we can get away for a few hours.

 

I suppose I still have that old school philosophy: You learn more by listening (or in this case reading) than talking.

 

Mike

[+AeroMechAZ]

My name is Waterboss, I'm from Yakima, Wa. Ive been in this sport for almost 2 years and have casually racked up about 89 caches I think. I've enjoyed this game very much.

Waterboss (Dave)

I'm Mike_B and I'm in Prescott, AZ. (and I'm Waterboss' dad). He told me about this game and got me interested when I let him know about getting my 1st GPS (the yellow eTrex; I've since "upgraded" to the Legend and given the Yellow one to a buddy of mine and also gotten him interested in caching).

 

I've only been in the game for a little over a year now; I've only got one TB out there ("AeroTraveller") and only found about 29 caches in this area, but I'm having fun with it, too. Haven't hidden any caches yet, but I may do that soon, too.

[+Jessex]

Why is this considered an "important topic"!?

[whiskeylover]

Hi, I'm new

[+psycHo & Cookie]

*Temporarily coming out of Lurk Mode*

 

I've been a lurker for almost a year....oh the shame....

 

*Lurk Mode back on*

[+Krypton]

Introducing Sir Lurksalot don't usually say much just lurk around

[+Alan Ellis]

Howdy, I'm a lurker on these boards, but I've posted a bit on GPSr threads. I didn't even know GCing existed until I read about the 60CS features on the Garmin website last year. I recently hurt my back (herniated disc) and decided I wanted to give GCing a try because I couldn't do some of my other sports. But now that my back is better, I still wanna GC. Anyway, hopefully, you'll see me post a little more on these boards once I learn more about the hobby. So far, it seems that there are some great people on this site and everyone is passionate about GCing. See you at the cache...

 

AE

 

-------------------------------------

www.JackieandAlan.com

[+The Seven G's]

I lurk--but not even that very often. I just forget the forum is there. I spend too much time as it is geocaching, thinking up caches, getting others to join (btw, is there any credit for that? I should get a commission for everyone I've got to purchase GPSrs and started caching!) Anyway, so spending even more time doing hanging out on the forum is going to ruin my marriage and life--not necessarily in that order.

-JG

[+Tellulah]

Hello everyone. I'm a sporadic geocacher...used to travel with work so I was all over the place...now I've just been too busy to get out and do it! Just popped in today to see what the geocaching community was up to...will go back to lurking now...

 

Tellulah

[+miami&motown]

Jeff from Plymouth, Michigan... new to Forums, been caching for a couple years

Cheers all

[+halffast]

Cool I get another number on my post.I read through the forums quite a bit just to see if there is anything to comment on.I dont fill Ive been caching long enough to be putting in alot of comments yet.I need to learn more about caching so I read.I spend most of my caching time with my 3 year old grandson.He has a ball finding and hiding caches.

[Peace Star & Rivi Spike]

Often when discussing features of the website, the point is raised that many of the people who might feel one way, or another about a given topic never actually say anything because the forums are so hostile.

 

Another good point that often comes up is that the forum is where people come to learn about caching, and we should try give the best impression we can.

 

I'm curious to know how many people are out there quietly taking it all in.

 

There really is no topic here, so you can't post off topic. And since there is no topic, there needn't be any arguing either.

 

Feel free to use this thread to say "Hi", and introduce yourself.

Hello there,

 

This is the first time posting to the forums. I am Peace Star and I have just reached the 50th cache stage.

 

I am just exploring at the moment where to go on these forums

 

Thanks

 

Peace Star

[+L337 H4X0Rz]

As a newbie, I have found lurking to be quite educational, and frequently entertaining...a very good combo

 

-Karen

[The Flying Dutchman]

/Lurk Off/

 

Hi,

I've been interested for quite a while, but been unemployed/homeless quite a lot of the time. Have managed to find a few without GPS, typically 1/1's. I'm not sure, but this could be my first actual post. Have learned a lot from reading the forums. The Good Lord gave me two ears, and one mouth. I take that as a sign that I should use the mouth half as much as I use the ears/eyes. I've not felt strongly enough about most issues to say anything.

 

There was a big hoo-rah going on a couple of years ago with the site administration changing things, and since I became unemployed about that time, I was gone from geocaching for awhile. I'm employed now, but owe everybody and his hound dog. So, it'll be awhile before I can afford a new GPS. Probably will be about as long before I can become a paid member here.

 

Peace

The Flying Dutchman

 

/Lurk On/

 

[+entropysedge]

Hi, I'm lurking because I'm still learning the basics. Once I've learned a bit more, might come out from the corner, but then again, I may not

 

Well hello all.... think I'll go back to observer mode....

[Team Yankee Kiwi]

Hello,

 

We've just discovered Geocaching (first find yesterday), and this is our first post, so greetings everyone.

 

Being the opinionated person that he is, I'm sure Alan will be be contributing to the discussions.

 

We're looking forward to having a lot of fun with this sport and hopefully meeting a lot of new and interesting people along the way.

 

Cheers,

Joy'n'Al.

[+ReyTheBear]

i just started posting a few days ago! been geocaching for almost a year now, and have been a lurker for pretty much that whole time. finally decided i should start sharing my opinion.

[+goldnberyl]

Hi, Ive been lurking for a few days now. I found my 1st cache last night and it was fun. There are some entertaining poeple posting stuff, but I'm not one of them.