I hope someday I can get over my fears and be an active and engaged participant in this online community where I am spending more and more time.

I hope you do too.  Welcome to ET, and thank you for such a thoughtful opening diary.

I 'lurked' for a long time on ET, and still now I don't look at any other blogs (like, where's the time?)

So croeso/welcome!  I hope you'll find yourself commenting more and giving us the chance to get to know who you are.  Your diary is a really nice piece of writing too so I do hope we'll see more.

Ad astra per aspera

For me, if I lurk it's just that I read but don't write-and-post.  (There's that fun part where you write-and-delete-comment-without-posting!)  The negative connotation as I've understood it is that the person "can't post"--meaning: they aren't good enough to post. "Go back to lurking--you're better at it!"  That kind of thing.  A site where comments of that kind abound is...a vicarious thrill or maybe a punch up--not my cup of tea.

I suppose there must be another stage where a person writes and posts but doesn't read much else of what's going on--and in the middle, some reading, some writing--the fact that one can write (or post videos or pictures) is the difference--and that the process of posting is not complicated--one of the things I like about ET is that anyone can join up, click on "Write a new diary entry..." and voila!  I like ratings (makes a person feel their comment has been read and appreciated), but everyone has their own internal logic to how they rate, from "I read it, so I'll rate it" to "I will only rate a comment if it is of exceptional quality" in comparison to others, maybe, or compared to other comments by the same writer...all the convolutions are there, and all the cultural variations...

The worst that can happen to a comment is that it sits quietly on its own, no ratings, no replies.  I have a theory that the best comment ever will gain no replies and no ratings--heh...

....I would love to go to Burning Man.

Talking of videos, here's one--three guitarists play La Rossiniana, by Mauro Giuliani.  Hope you like it!

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

Good diary.

Please don't hesitate to write what you think needs to be said, in the way you think it should be said.  You can provide a valuable service to ET as a 'newbie' (a newcomer to a blog) in helping other people who feel uncomfortable about dipping their toes in this pool of opinionated, verbose, comma-pluckers.  ;-)

A doo run-run-run, a doo run-run

Welcome to the ET, honey!

Now that you've lost your lurkginity, I hope to see more of you online.

BTW: The link she wanted to post was one that I had emailed to her. It's to a talk by Prof. Clay Shirky at the Web 2.0 Expo in SF this year.

LINK

It''s about the "cognitive surplus" that is now being utilized to create collaborative online endeavors such as Wiki and ET. A very interesting and stimulating talk. Highly recommended!

But most of the time, it's pull up a chair, crack open a brew and have a good chat about stuff we care about.

And don't worry about being an expert on anything. {whisper}I never know what I'm talking about and a lot of them haven't noticed yet. Ssh, don't tell 'em{/whisper}

However, I know a definition of "lurker" that is distinctly unflattering, but as I lurk on several US blogs I'll not repeat it.

keep to the Fen Causeway

Uhm, this is a perfectly acceptable diary, so I would stop listenning to people whose comments make you feel bad about yourself.  Even if you happen to be married to them.  

"This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."

one thing , I think I speak for everyone when  say we have no problem with people lurking. amongst other things, we're a resource for the wider world, and if people cant turn up, read and go away again without feeling that they have to contribute, then in a large part we're failing.

Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.

They also serve who only lurk and wait,
indeed they serve the more than those who bark and bait!

"It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."

if it is fun to read.. do it!! if it s fun to write once in a while ... do it!!

if it is fun to discuss .. do it!!

whatever you feel like doing it....!!!

so I fell like... saying Hello!!!!!!!

And yes.. nike stole one of my favourites sentences in spanish... the famous "hazlo"

A pleasure

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude

well done for taking the plunge....wasn't so bad, was it? it's only freezing for a few seconds!

do you guys live in sicilia?

"Growth is the Holy Grail, nature is an optional extra." David Neville

Blogs don't have space constraints as does print, so the worst that can happen is that your diary gets ignored. So write what you wish and tell your husband to get outside more, he's obviously spending too much time at his keyboard!

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape

I have to say that I have not yet come to terms with lurkers. These are the people who drive to work because they are not sure of the bus timetable, and don't quite understand the principle of insulation.

But lurkers who come out of the closet are the blessed. They are proof that we are not totally bohemian nor totally anally retentive.  We are citizens of this world, and we are not going to take it anymore - to quote.

Welcome.

You can't be me, I'm taken

Although, in the immortal (heh) words of Spike:

I wasn't lurking ... I was standin' about.

It's a totally different vibe.