I think 'silent lurkers' is a little unfair!. I have only been using this forum for a short time, but here are few points which could explain what you are noticing.
1, The times were I have contributed to a thread, my comments seem go largely ignored. To those with a skin not quite as thick as mine, this apparent clique-ness might be a little off-putting, and doesn't exactly encourage people to take part.
2, I have often looked at a thread title, clicked on it, but found it wasn't about what I thought it was.
3, If a thread has a lot of posts, it is going to take some time to sift through these and decide whether or not you have anything to contribute to the discussion.
4, Finally(!), and this is especially so if taking into account the previous comment, taking part in a discussion can take up a lot of time, an hour can be sucked out of your day just like that!. Those who have a lot of other demands on their time, just find it easier to have a look at what is being said, whether or not there are useful hints or comments being made to make their lives easier. They may simply not be able to take part, even if they might like to.
This does not, in my opinion, make 'silent lurkers' the undesirable element you seem to be implying. We are all different, and not necessarily looking for the same out of a forum as you!.
Simon,
I'm one of those who would have appeared to have ignored some of your postings, but I can ussure you I haven't. There have been a couple of excellent posts you have made recently with regard to payload of vans and using a car rather than a fit for purpose van which were truely exceptional.
I appreciated those posts as you put them in writing far better than I have done previously. My failure was to recognise that in a reciprical post, which I'm sorry about. I wish we had some sort of 'excellent post' button we could click to highlight a good post.
Please keep it up.
Thanks
Hi spruce, very kind words, but I really wasn't complaining about it, just offering a couple of suggestions as to why smithie is seeing what he is seeing. Ultimately, on all forums, certainly all the ones I have taken part in, there is always a massive difference in the amount of members (silent lurkers) who just read a thread, than contributers. I really don't see it as an issue, but I felt obliged to offer an opinion, from the point of view of someone who hasn't been using this forum for long. Apologies to anyone who took offence to my use of clique-ness, that is perhaps a little harsh, but from what I have seen and read, there seems to be a group of maybe a dozen members, who all seem to know each other well, and have a bit of banter or whatever, which is fine. Point is, they always seem to just respond to each others comments, as opposed to anyone elses. For someone new to the forum, trying to elbow their way into this, probably seems as intimidating as going up to a group of strangers in a pub and just joining in the conversation!.
Here, for what it is worth, is a couple of other points which I feel would help.
1, An section for new members to introduce themselves and be welcomed by existing members might help break the ice?.
2, During the process of registering, it states you must use your own, or company name as a user name. Firstly, why?, this in itself could well put off potential members. As long as the people who run the forum know who you are, I don't see why you cant use whatever user name you want. Secondly, having read this, and used my own name for my user name, I come on to the forum to find members such as frankybadboy and smudger, surely this is their own, or company names?!. So what is all that about?.