Nice one Miner

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Not a joke - but interesting nevertheless

Types of Lurker

Malevolent lurkers

Some lurkers may attempt to heavily involve themselves in the administration of a moderated forum by repeatedly alerting moderators to comments which offend their political or moral point of view, but refrain from participating in the discussion directly. Some of these lurkers occasionally post comments praising moderators, usually in an effort to curry favor.

Benign lurkers

Most lurkers, however, are either shy, feel inadequately educated on a given topic, or are uncomfortable expressing their thoughts in written form on email lists. They enjoy reading others' posts and responses to them, but refrain from adding their own contributions. They have been known to send comments off-list, to individual posters, which are frequently positive.

Constructive lurkers

The constructive lurker is a person who regularly reads online forums but rarely posts. These individuals might have a high degree of sophistication within the topic of any given forum, but are unwilling to post detailed replies. Lurkers of this sort are not shy about posting. When these lurkers do post, they often provide well thought-out and detailed comment to the discussion at hand. A constructive lurker is often a veteran of several previous online discussion forums. Having been involved in many heated online discussions in the past, these lurkers often only contribute when the discussion takes a novel turn.

Smart-Ass lurkers

The "smart-ass lurker" is a person who watches a discussion take place, only to intervene with a derisive comment or "gotcha" comment that sends up the active participants (from a smug, detached position).

Perverted lurkers

The "perverted lurker" is a person who watches online discussions for the purposes of sexual arousal. They are often condemned by moderators and participants of topics such as women's issues and transsexualism, because they find their presence degrading. They may observe topics that are not prurient in and of themselves such as fashion, hair, and medical discussion boards. They may for instance, find something arousing in a discussion on breast cancer.

Starcraft Lurker

In the RTS game franchise StarCraft, produced by Blizzard Entertainment, lurkers are a ground unit of the zerg, one of the three playable races in the game. It possesses the unique ability of being able to attack enemy ground units while burrowed, sending out rows of spikes to impale its enemies. Without use of a detection unit, the lurker can remain hidden indefinately, attacking, and usually destroying, any enemy unit that wanders past. The lurker unit was added to gameplay in the Brood War expansion pack.

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