The fine art of
socially acceptable
eavesdropping in chatlines.
Lurking occurs when you yourself have nothing
of interest to add to the conversation (muckymind),
are too busy running back and forth doing real time
stuff (ducking the boss, bathing, eating bbq chicken),
but find it impossible to fight your addiction to be there. Lurking also occurs if the room you
usually chat in is infested by inhabitants you
don't particularly care for, but you still feel the need
to keep up with the comings and goings,
because it is your room.
Usually broken when a topic
arouses your interest, good or bad.
The Semi-LuRk
To openly admit to the room that one is lurking...
which then leads to greetings and chatting, though
the semi-lurker is semi-obligated to state
that he/she is in lurk mode every other post or
wear a lurker tag attached to their regular handle (name).
LuRkBaKs
Scrolling back a room, up to 999 posts ago
(which could be days/weeks worth of cyberbabble), to find
out what all the fuss is about, who's cybering who, etc. Statement of Lurk is not required.
