Lurkers

[powerbankfactory]

I've noticed there can be thousands of readers vs a few dozen registered users here at any given time.

So for the unwashed masses, wouldn't it be nice if you introduced yourself and perhaps your pets. Give yourself a cute name and register without prejudice. Then we can all smooze around, talk about stocks and how to make oodles of money, like y'all and us'all want to do, eh?

*This public service announcement is presented free of charge and is guaranteed to make you a better trader, what with unfettered communication being what it is (It's hard to get the answer to your question, if you don't ask it).

[PWalkom]

FYI, about 75% of the "lurkers" are search engine spiders that crawl the site 24 hours a day, indexing posts within minutes. Scroll to the bottom of the main page, click on "currently active users" and then go to the bottom of the page and select "bots" and you can compare that to "guests" to see the proportion. Our guests to registered user ratio is lower than most forums, although it would be nice to have even more users registering and posting. However, the pattern is usually lots of lurking and then when the visitor feels comfortable they won't be ridiculed, they join and post. Actually, less than 10% of newly registered users every post, this is also average for a forum.

[ptekfujn30]

So my points are well taken. Just not to the extent I proffered. I totally understand the reluctance to post. Being ridiculed is high on the list but being coddled is equally uncomfortable for those with a working knowledge of internet protocol.

Doing a search for the answer to your question, asking it in the correct folder and entering without attitude is usually a path to acceptance.

It seems to me that vastly divergent opinions on a variety of subjects have been given voice of late and active posters are growing.

Did you ever get some people to help you run this place? You should.

[QIylKPsahy]

I am pretty clueless about these things, but aren't you referring to trolls? Folks who show up to complain, or cause trouble, and never contribute anything. Maybe that's a subset of the group you're talking about.