rocky, i happen to also agree with you completely . . .
and everyone else as well . . . .
lurking . . . . is good!!! if you use the lurking period to go back a few dozen pages of forum history, you'll learn some of the personalities and in jokes, and maybe get a handle on the real character of the forum . . .
you might just get confident enough, despite your shyness, to realise that de-lurking would be good!!!
you might just find that even your most inconsequential post provides someone else with an opportunity to post, and people run with it, and you begin talking to people who you previously thought belonged to the clique ((( there are cliques within cliques to be honest, but it ain't that hard to work your way in! mods, friends of mods, friends of friends, your friends, newbies, etc etc!
)))you might just find that, despite being impossibly shy and retiring, the anonymity of the net, and the encouragement you get from replies, spurs you on to greater effort, and you develop your own little clique, and it suddenly ain't the cliquey place you thought it was!!!
you might find you've suddenly made 100 / 500 / 1000 posts, and despite a general reluctance to see that as any great personal achievement, and trumpet the fact, you nevertheless want to thank those who helped you stick around long enough to get the point and discover something that helped you overcome your inhibitions, and make genuine friends, and talk about and experience things that we're previously deeply repressed fantasies that everyone has, but don't often admit . . .
being involved, at whatever level, is just generally good! you'll get out what you put in! you might find eventualy you're not quite ready to handle what you do get out of it, so don't rush! in your own time!!! ;-) just me own thoughts on the subject :lol:
neil x x x x x ;-)
