I learn from Janet, Bora, PZ, and Afarensis that this week is supposedly National Delurking Week. Lurkers, for those of you who aren’t hip to the Internet lingo, are people who read blogs (or, for that matter, any form of online forum), but never (or only rarely) leave comments or posts. They are said to be “lurking.” During National Delurking Week, we bloggers are supposed to ask lurkers to delurk momentarily and leave a comment. Given that Respectful Insolence averages somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 unique visits per day on most weekdays (a little more than half that number on weekends) and that most posts average less than ten comments (posts about antivaccination loons excepted, as they not infrequently exceed 100 comments), there are a lot of lurkers out there. It’s time for you to join the party, if only for one day!
I remember that I did this once before on the old blog back in September 2005 and got 81 comments. My traffic is probably three times higher now than it was back then. Does that mean that I should get 240 comments this time? Let’s find out. In any case, I think that waiting 15 months to do it again isn’t too brief a time. In fact, looking up the old post, I can’t believe it’s been that long.
So, consider this to be an open thread, another thing that I don’t do very often at all.
Lurkers: Reveal yourselves, O Hidden Ones! (Just for one day, anyway.) How long have you been reading? Why don’t you comment? What do you like? What do you hate? Remember: If you don’t comment (at least today), the terrorists win.
The rest of you: Time for any comments, criticism (hopefully constructive), and random blather.
