I just want to pipe up for a moment here. (And waffle like always). Regarding Lurking. I'm not a big fan of it - I like the idea of everyone sharing the love (and sometimes, raging flame wars) and opinions.
I use the site exclusively from my smartphone. So to navigate, I open up the Shoutbox/Forums main page and then New Tab any article posts I want to read and get all outraged over.
So I look like I'm sniffing around, stalking Shoutbox lol. Everytime I am back to square one and have completed a bunch of posts on my New Tabs, I'm back to the Shoutbox page - so I automatically see the convo that is rolling by - and hence, often notice if someone is shouting out to me. But I don't sit there, lurking silently, monitoring Shoutbox.
And my online status is sitting right there, looking like I'm some dipshit, hungrily hanging on to every word being written lol. Meanwhile, in reality, I'm clueless to Shoutbox and merrily getting my knickers in a knot on a number of article posts - or chatting with a handful of really lovely people who PM me. (You all know who you are. And I do want to say, I bloody appreciate the communication and love talking to you all).
That makes me feel sleazy lol. I know Shoutbox is a public forum for everyone in lieu of PMing - but I don't interrupt a random person's conversation in public, so I don't like to do it here unless something big is going down.
I know this post is really random
. Sorry my lovelies! Just wanted to clarify that I'm not watching Shoutbox obsessively like a total tard lol.
I'm going back to trawling the forums for some good article posts to pontificate on. See you all on there!! Xx