In Internet culture, a lurker is typically a member of an online community who observes, but does not participate by posting.
[4] Lurking allows users to learn the conventions of an online community before they participate, improving their socialization when they eventually "de-lurk".
The bulletin boards were accessed through a single phone line that users would call to upload files and post comments to share with the community.
Because lurkers would keep the phone line busy for extended periods of time without contributing anything, they were often viewed negatively and would be barred by the system operator who managed the BBS.
[12] Lurkers are also viewed positively in present-day communities because they provide an audience for the mass media.
[10] Users also choose to lurk in order to find examples to follow when they decide to participate, avoid making redundant posts or contributions, and learn more about the topics of conversation.
[10] Researchers have shown that different motivations underlie reading, contributing, and moderating web forums.
[14] Lurking on social media can also be a form of receptive reading, whereby users seek to understand the opinions of those with a divergent point of view.
84% of the members fit this mixed pattern, indicating that people choose whether to lurk or to contribute on a per-community basis.
Mo and Coulson found that lurkers on an online support group for HIV/AIDS did not differ from posters in their levels of care, self-efficacy, optimism, depression, and loneliness.
[12] Lurkers learn more about the individuals in the group, the dialogue styles, and the implicit norms and explicit policies.
In the interviews, lurkers mentioned that this was their preferred method so that they could avoid making a mistake and being rejected by the group.
Lurkers will also examine email addresses and signatures with associated websites so get a better understanding of the other members of the group.
In their study on interactive mailing lists, Takahashi, Fujimoto, and Yamasaki demonstrated that "active lurkers", or individuals who spread content from an online group to individuals external to the online group, help spread beneficial information to surrounding communities.
[10][18] This means that lurkers are predisposed to leave before making a contribution because they lack the motivation that belonging and satisfaction bring.
Lurkers in Facebook can experience loneliness as they watch other, more social members of the community participate.
[26] Lurking is just one form of free-riding that can happen within an Internet community, and is similar to asking questions without responding, or gathering information without distributing it.
An Internet community is seen as a public good because it is a pool of data to which people may, if they choose, separately contribute information.
The bandwidth costs of lurkers visiting a site may outstrip the value that donors or contributors provide to a community.
[5] In a series of studies investigating how newcomers learn the rules and habits of good users in four types of Usenet groups (i.e., health support, political issues, hobby, and technical groups), Burke, Kraut, and Joyce found correlational and experimental evidence that "group-oriented membership claims" or "de-lurking messages" were well received by previous community members.
Correlational results in Study 1 showed that messages with group-oriented membership claims elevated community member responses by 38 percent, while experimental results in Study 2 showed that placing group-oriented membership claims into Usenet posts elevated community member responses by 6 percent.
[5] Through analyzing e-learning forums, Rafaeli et al. found a positive association between amounts of de-lurking and social capital.
Soroka and Rafaeli also found that irrespective of the amount of cultural capital, de-lurking becomes less likely as time passes.
[33][34] Resnick, Janney, Buis, and Richardson introduced a community element to the online walking program called Stepping Up to Health and discussed various issues of beginning an online community, including transforming lurkers into users.
[35] While Rashid et al. did not examine lurkers directly, they conducted an experimental study on MovieLens that investigated how to raise low contribution rates in online communities.
Given these findings, Rashid et al. claim, "…designers can use information about the beneficiaries of contributions to create subtle and integrated messages to increase motivation"(p. 958).
[7] Methods of studying lurkers include logging, questionnaires, interviews, observation, ethnography, and content and discourse analysis.