(April 30, 2011 at 1:15 pm)Cinjin Cain Wrote: This website, atheistforums.org has nearly 40 pages of members that have never made a post. SOME of them have been members since 2009. It made me curous. One, why would anyone sign up to a discussion forum to say nothing when you can view the threads just by stopping by?
Well, it's because some people may have different reasons for signing up. For example, they might sign up thinking that there could be other sections in the forum which non-members cannot see, or they might sign up thinking that they're going to post something (but then they forget to do so), or they don't feel interested anymore, or they don't like their username, or they get busy with something else, and so on. There may be even be lurkers amongst them although I think they would visit the site rarely (since they don't post), and one of our members, an active one, tried to make them come out of their shells in this thread.
(April 30, 2011 at 1:15 pm)Cinjin Cain Wrote: How many "speaking" members are vocal about their opinions in real life?
I'm less vocal in real life, especially in regards to my faith, because I don't even meet that many atheists in real life.
And speaking of real life, we will always be disadvantaged online when it comes to getting a 'full' picture of what a person's character is like because we cannot see the non-verbal dimensions of each other's personality such as facial expressions and body language. Nevertheless, I still think there is definitely a lot of things we can learn about what somebody is like even from how they post in a forum. There are things like how much information they give away about themselves, which topics they chose to reply to, what they don't reply to, the tone they appear to take, how short/long/seemingly thought-out replies they make, etc. So, I think forum discussions go some way at least in giving a sense of what a person is like.
(April 30, 2011 at 1:15 pm)Cinjin Cain Wrote: How bout it ... are you a bitch to deal with in real life or are you an introvert who needs this site as a way to vocalize your true thoughts and feelings? (I'm willing to guess a couple)
The latter, except that I wouldn't say that I need it but rather that I use it (since the site is already available), as one of the many ways of expressing myself, as well as to learn from others.
