In Internet culture, a lurker is a person who reads discussions on a message board, newsgroup, chatroom, file sharing, social networking site, listening to people in VOIP calls such as Skype and Ventrilo or other interactive system, but rarely or never participates actively. Research indicates that "lurkers make up over 90% of online groups" .
Lack of trust represents one of the reasons explaining lurking behavior .
History
The term dates back to the mid-1980s when bulletin board systems (BBSes) were often accessed by a single phone line (frequently in someone's home). There was an e...