Lurking then. Lurking now.
Blogs are no new thing to me. I was blogging, so to speak, before Al Gore invented, or should I say, took the initiative to create the Internet! I ran a small BBS, or Bulletin Board Service, way back in the day. The name of it was The Melting Pot. Here is a link to listing of some of the boards that were in my area. The date says that I ran it from 1991 – 1994, but in reality, it was more like 1988-1992, as when my younger son, Tony, was born, I discontinued the board, we left Mesquite, TX and moved to Denton, TX.
Back in those days, we had modems and only one person at a time could log into the board. If you tried to dial into someone’s board, you’d just have to wait until the other person got off. My board, as I remember it, had different areas, each having different topics. Stats were measured on number of calls per day. For me, a good day would be about 40 calls. Some of the larger boards that had multi-tasking boards and 3 or 4 modems/phone numbers could do hundreds of calls/day, but at that time, the hardware costs as well as costs for phone lines was just prohibitive! Then, the most maddening things were: your modem getting stuck and not hanging up, your board not recycling correctly and ‘forgetting’ to hang up the modem, or your modem refusing to answer calls because the software screwed up. All 3 of these required physical interaction with the computer/modem. There was nothing that could be done about it until you got home! Grrr!
During this time, I met a number of people, just like I have during my blogging. One guy, Joe Ondesko, I still contact from time to time, lives here in NC, about 40 miles from me. We lived about the same distance from each other when I lived in Dallas. A group of us used to get together every other Friday and have pizza and talk shop. 
The major advantage of blogging is that it the number of people reading your blog is not constrained by physical phone lines, but by the number of connections a particular server will allow to your blog simultaneously.
One thing, though, remains the same between BBSing and blogging. There are a number of lurkers. In the BBS world, lurkers were a pain. They would call, browse around, not make any comments, and then leave. This would tie up the phone line, sometimes for quite a while. Of course, we as SysOps (System Operators), would prefer that they at least make a post, or hang up and let someone else post!
I use Google Analytics to view my blog stats and am steadily seeing an upward trend in my subscriptions and visits, but the number of posts remains flat and, in some cases, is declining. I realize that most people who visit blogs rarely post, but it is nice feedback.
So, how about it lurkers? How about dropping a nugget of wisdom now and again, or just say hello. I’d like to know who you are just so that I can say hello back to you! This is a friendly place and, even if you decide not to say hello, you are more than welcome to drop by any time!
Thanks for reading …
Thinking back 15-20 years to those days of BBS’s I’m simply amazed at how far we’ve now advanced.
When I was a child and I wanted to research information on a particular subject I would either use a set of encyclopedias, that my parents had purchased along with annual yearbook updates, or make a trip to the nearest local library. Even then information sources were very limited.
Today at my fingertips are thousands of informational sources all easily searchable.
Can’t wait to see what the next decades bring to us.
I used to lurk a lot more than comment, not so much here and not so much anymore…but I used to think I had nothing intelligent to add..which is probably still true!
I get a lot of lurker. I never thought to ask them what they were thinking about when they visited.
The internet has definitely changed a lot.
This is a sweet photo. Very touching moment.
Laurie: That’s what I hear a lot. People don’t think that they have anything intelligent/interesting/worthwhile to say. I do wish that more people would chime in; it’s always interesting, to me, to get different opinions even if they don’t agree with me … probably especially if they don’t agree with me. I always learn something.
Oh, I hope they do respond. I’d like to see who visits regularly. I’m sure they’re “good folk.”
OK, Hand on heart, I am one of your lurkers, although I’m not fond of the word and it makes me feel a little underhand, which is not the case, but as lurkers go, I am a loyal lurker and by no means fickle. I follow about twenty blogs on a daily basis, I usually manage to whizz through them at some point throughout my working day, and since I am at work, finding time to comment is certainly tricky. But, since you brought it up, I’ve been thinking about the amount of feedback you don’t get from people like myself that you really do deserve. And so in future I shall try to make more time to this end. A little about myself, I’ve always had a distant interest in photography and for some reason never really followed it up, over the last year or so I have found myself more and more drawn in this direction, the first blog I happened upon (fortunately as it’s wonderful) belongs to Laurie @ Capture This and to be honest her site has been inspirational as well as a hub leading me through links to all the other blogs I check out, including your own. I intend to start my own blog sooner or later, but never really feel happy enough with my own photos to post them, none the less I see a steady improvement and have learnt an incredible amount simply by ‘lurking’ over the last year, but rarely feel qualified or experienced enough to make justified comments on other peoples work and I think that this is perhaps one of the main reasons for a lack of comments in general, although I think that the number of visitors, comments or no speaks volumes. I am fortunate enough to live in Scotland a place rich in photographic opportunities, I also have two very young children so can’t make the most of these opportunities yet!! but I do when I can, perhaps a little later in the year I will bite the bullet and create my blog watch this space.
That’s it, my lunch break has long since ran out, I enjoy your blog immensely, and look forward to your daily offerings of thoughts and images, thank you and please keep it up.
Padraig :
A heartfelt thank you for chiming in. I’d like to say that the term ‘lurking’ in no way implies anything negative at all. There is no judgment involved. Thanks for much for visiting and reading on a daily basis. I appreciate it.
Regarding your distant interest in photography and your desire to start a blog, I say: Go for it! Photography, for me, is pure fun and I understand the constraints of family and work. My cameras sat dormant for more years than I care to admit. I’d say from 1992, when my younger son was born, until 2003, I hardly took any pictures, save for the snapshots on family vacation. That was a long time! Now that the younger of the two is in high school and doesn’t need so much attention, I have time for myself.
Whenever you do start your blog, please let me know. I’m always interested in new blogs, pictures, and ways of thinking.
Again, thanks so much for chiming in!
Your post reminded me that while yours is one of the blogs I check every single day, I have commented only once or twice. My reasons are the same as those listed above: time constraints, thinking I have nothing important to say. Thank you for reminding me that if I am visiting so often, it’s nice to leave a note once in a while.
Paul, this image is priceless–a fleeting moment but so much more. Nice work!
Ah…BBS’es. That brings back some memories. Good and bad. I guess, I wouldn’t be doing any blogging, if I haven’t gotten hooked at that time. Must have been some kind of imprinting…
One major difference was that phone-calls were extremly expensive as soon as you tried to reach a BBS in another town. Hence the usual, regularly visiting crowd was from our hometown – and we even had a face-to-face meeting every 2 weeks. That was really interesting – and something that I miss a bit in nowadays world wide activities. On the other hand… hey, it’s fun to exchange and get in touch with people around the globe!
Ha! Haven’t thought about the old BBS days in awhile. But I lurk myself, like others, sometimes just not much to say in general. But also as a blog owner, I think it helps just to know people are reading and just stop by to say ‘hi.’