I just realized that even though I've been lurking 4chan for nine years I've made very few posts. I've literally just been reading other people's posts for nine years with barely a response. I wish I would have contributed more. I question whether I was even a part of this community or just a spectator. So I'm making this thread tonight for all anons like me. If you have been lurking like me, respond here with something. It can be as small as a reaction picture, as big as a manifesto, or anything in between.
observing is not passive. it changes the observer.
So I guess you have been doing something all along!
why you no post more tho?
>>29332715
I personally don't understand how extended lurkers are even a thing.
Maybe I'm just too much of a born shitposter and attention whore, but I was maybe on 4chan for about two weeks before I started posting.
This was in late 2008.
Yeah not me I've been posting pointless unoriginal typpo riddne crap in pretty much every thread since day one. Anyway. Hi.
I just ate a cherry pit and now I'm wondering if I'm going to die or not
Lurkers are the truest robots
Only normalfags care about being heard when they don't really have anything to say
I've posted, but not frequently enough to feel like an active part of this "community." On any board.
>>29332715
I didn't post for the first 5 years I was here. It takes awhile to absorb and internalize board culture, so I think I did the right thing.
>>29332715
i've been shitposting on this shithole sense one week
GOML u fkn skrub
I lurked for about two years before posting..
but I was on /g/ then
been here a long time, too long
now I post frequently, but mostly because I really like typing on my mechanical keyboard with blue swithces and .4mm travel reducers
>>29332715
>tfw post pretty often
>rarely get (You)'s unless I'm drunk and will forget it
I've been just like you for a long time. It matched my rl persona aswell, I've always just enjoyed being a spectator. Never really felt the need to take part in activities or conversations.
I'm starting to change now though, it's more interesting if you throw something out there and get a reaction. Both irl and on forums.
>>29332715
Notice me senpai
Forgot to say oc
>>29332757
I don't really respond to emails, text messages, or missed phone calls so maybe it's just a bad character trait. I also obviously don't have many friends. Thanks for asking anon
>>29332783
Hi
Im too lazy to get involved on threads and im too autistic to even interact with anons
>>29332880
You know I actually think some of the funniest posts get hardly any responses. Idk why
Been browsing for 6 years now, had phases of posting but sometimes i've gone months and months with out making one post.
Many times I will write a post, read it back and just delete and say fuck this.
>>29332715
Didn't Moot once say that about 90% of the site's regular traffic consisted of lurkers, and that this was a lower number than most other forums/imageboards?
Anyway I was in a similar position to you OP, but now I tend to make 1/2 shirt posts a day. I still don't know if I'm "part of the community" though, considering I've never contributed to the culture. I'd say since you've made some OC that gets reposted and spread around is when you've truly made it.
>>29333104
What about when a board makes threads about you when you're not famous nor a tripfag?
>>29332774
I was lurking for around a year before I started posting regularly
now I post on most threads
I'm a shutin and I suppose being introverted is the most common reason for most people
>>29332880
if you say things to people directly or ask them questions you're much more likely to get (You)'s.
>>29333104
I hadn't heard that but I guess I wouldn't be surprised. Good point on the OC. Tbh when 4chan culture spread like wildfire a few years ago I felt kind of upset. I'm not even sure why. I considered all the old memes to be sacred no matter how shitty they were. And they would be posted here for years. Now, new memes come out every week and they are on every corner of the internet and TV it's so surreal.
I used to lurk 4chan hard until I lost all my friends so I thought I would post more only to get completely ignored most the time, so now I don't even bother and just lurk apart from this time.
>>29332715
Hey OP, I'm pretty much in the same boat as you. Don't get me wrong, I've had my fair share of decent threads - I even had a short lived "meme" (back when the word meme still meant something) during the time when /b/ wasn't COMPLETE shitposting. But the majority of my time on this site has been lurking.
Would I say that time has been wasted? Not necessarily, I've had plenty of laughs, found plenty of interesting thoughts, and have found bands that have become my favorites through lurking this site. In part, a lot of who I am today is because of this site despite the fact I rarely posted.
I've sometimes have tried, back in the days of JLH I tried to force my r9k tripfag persona onto the community but I failed to reach anywhere close to the popularity of names like JLH, or derrida, or the others. Perhaps part of the reason we choose not to post is because deep down inside we understand that none of our thoughts or viewpoints are that interesting or thought-provoking. None of the threads we make elicit many people taking the energy to craft a response. So instead we become content with being the content customers instead of its curators.
But that's just life, not everyone was born a winner.
I've been here since 2006 and this will be my first time ever posting.
>>29333012
this sums up my time here as well
I've gone out of my shell today tho, I think this is my third post already today.
>>29333273
>I was lurking for around a year before I started posting regularly
this. I remember when I went on /b/ (and was le edgy teenager) and just lurked for about 6 months, then I moved on to other boards and stopped being a brain dead faggot. I still didnt post, and even when I started posting it was just shitposting, feeling that I was too much of a newfag to really contribute to any board. I feel that a year of lurking is a good amount of time to get a feel for a certain board culture and be able to contribute and post positively and comfortably
>>29333419
Thanks for posting anon
>>29332999
Because there's no room to build off of them.
They've already done it, they made the funniest post.
>>29332791
you will have cherries growing in your stomach. said cherries will digest and their pits would create more cherries. repeat and you'll never have to eat again
>>29332715
hey I lurk most of the time too.
you're going to make it. so am I
>>29332715
I only post a few times a year.
I've browsed for years though. Mostly here, travel, and wg.
>>29332715
I posted her from 2008-2009 and quit until 2014 and then quit until last November. 4chan has changed in ugly ways. It's basically a place where we all complain about being virgins, not having enough neetbux, and espouse fiscally liberal/socially conservative bullshit. I can't believe this proverbial den of sexual deviants now has the nerve to throw the bible around. We're basically like those street preachers who harass strangers and then go home to fuck rentboys
>>29332880
This is why I often post bait. Something about getting passionate replies brings a great feeling. Even if the replies are negative.
8==D - - xd
>>29333640
Thx brah I know we will.
>>29333647
I also lurk trv and fantasize about vacationing in exotic locations when I can't fall asleep.
>>29333706
I agree with you m8. 4chan has changed alot over the years.
>>29333819
le le XD
t. origami poster
>>29332715
Thanks, anon. I can finally be part of something.
>>29332715
i feel ye'
>>29333916
>>29333998
Good to hear from you anons
>>29332715
Yeah, I kind of understand what you're talking about. I'm a die-hard lurker, I don't post very much at all. Oftentimes I'll draft a post but then decide that it's not worth it and just delete it. Lately I've been posting a little bit more than usual. I think that last week was the first time that I actually "argued" with someone on this website, even if it was in a halfway joking kind of way. And I've been browsing here every single day for years. I just don't get really involved in posting.
I have also never made a single thread on 4chan in all my time browsing. Not one. As far as impact on the community goes, maybe someone read a post I made once and it made them think. That's something that I can't see or know. I have seen some reaction images that I've made get posted around, though, which is the only clearly appreciable thing that I have any claim to. Snip together something dumb in MSpaint and drop it in a thread. Suddenly see that image again two years later, and this time being reposted in greater numbers. It's not mine anymore, now it's part of the community's consciousness. Most people probably don't stop to think about the retarded frog pictures they post, but I always look at them and remember that someone took the time out of their day to put them together, and their little burst of creative inspiration then became something larger than themselves.
>>29332774
For me, I understand how the posts I make will make no difference in the long wrong. Very unlikely to be read. If it is read it is very unlikely to change the mind of the reader. If it changes the mind of the reader it is very unlikely to be acted upon. All posts are on here are short-term amusement. This board is a purgatory until we end up dead. Even if robots end up becoming normies, they would instantly forget anything they read here. A post I make might invoke a few emotions but those very emotions are what enslave us in this idea of life. Lurking for me is a form of meditation. I feel like david attenborugh watching wildlife trying to figure out the meaning of it all. What does it boil down to? Why am I still here? Why am I asking these questions when I can be ODing right now. BTW first post here in years of lurking.
Frankly I don't post here because I always re-read my sentences and realize they just don't 'flow' with the thread, and I've lurked for years, which is way too painfully similar too real life
>>29332715
I've been here almost 12 years now and the only time I've ever really posted was when I was tripfagging on /vg/ in 2013-2015. Other than that its usually one random post every couple months.
I post from time to time but I never get you's, so...
>>29332715
xorig xomm
Here i am
This is actually my first contribution to anything on 4chan
