(Jay) I notice there are a ton of people who lurk.
Rarely or never posting.
When I lurk I do it as a courtesy to prevent blather-feed-forward loops.
That is, when everyone tries to get in on the same bad joke or whatever
and the few (hundred!) lurkers that remain have to delete 120 messages
a day for four consecutive days.
Another courtesy I practice is when a question I can answer comes
up, I read till end of list to see if it's already been answered and let
that be too. On questions where I know there are better experts present
I'll wait a half day or so for them, then answer if there's still nothing.
(James) ... the pissing contests that seem to erupt on
the list.
The correct term, unfortunately.
John A.