Re: Bottom feeders

[Brian E Carpenter <brian at hursley.ibm.com>]

I agree with John and Bob Braden on this. We shouldn't worry about
people who lurk for a few meetings and then participate, or people who
lurk in some WGs and participate in others. We *should* worry about people
who come to the IETF once and never come back - because they probably came
to the wrong meeting, and went home unhappy. 

  Brian

John Beck wrote:
> 
> Keith> I honestly don't know how many of the 'lurkers' in any particular room
> Keith> are actively participating in some WG versus how many are lurking in
> Keith> all of them. but I do know that a large number of lurkers is harmful
> Keith> to a WG's ability to conduct a useful meeting.
> 
> How so?  If they're just lurking, the only harm I could see is taking up
> space in the room.  I started out more or less lurking, mainly just to make
> sure people didn't try to do something stupid in my areas of interest.  But
> gradually over time I found I was able to participate at a more meaningful
> level.  So lurking can be a Good Thing, from a certain point of view.
> 
> -- John