esper:

amateur psychiatrist esper, free consultations - but don't sue if you get the wrong diagnosis. no, i don't think lurking is odd, you've probably done it yourself, most people who frequent web forums do some lurking now and then. i don't think it has anything to do with insecurity either. for example, there is a swedish speaking gimp forum with some members who write nice tutorials, i often go there to check if there's something new but i don't like the overall tone of that forum so i wouldn't join it.

no, you got me all wrong

there are some forums i wouldnt join because of insecurity

i had some horrible experiences on troll forums and was very afraid to post there for a long time
so i became a lurker and only post twice a year
then i tasted blood and now i know how to deal with trolls (or whatever you wanna call those nice people)

i was just thinking, if there are really so many people lurking GimpChat as it seems, it would be so much nicer, if they would all come out and post
as i said: sometimes we are so few.....

esper: aha, i see. "insecurity" is one of the most used words in pop psychology and people who know nothing about anything but think they now a lot use it to explain every sort of human behaviour, i thought you were making fun of that - i often do myself.

of course it would be nice if more people actually joined and posted their stuff here, but i think most of the lurkers are probably like me, they don't have the slightest intention of joining another forum, they just gather up what they need and move on. we can't do much about it except for remembering to encourage all the new members who post something and i think we're usually quite good at that.

my english is not perfect
i pick a lot of words up and sometimes i use them in a wrong way
so maybe insecurity is not the best word for what i wanted to say