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Nonpublic participation within an online community, often called lurking, occurs when an individual joins a community, but does not post. This study examines the nature of lurking, why people lurk and the differences in attitudes between lurkers and posters. The results indicate significant differences between people who lurk and those who post in an online community.We conclude that when people lurk they are observing, which in no way is a negative behavior. This introverted or passive behavior affects lurkers' attitudes about the benefits of the community, their expectations, and opinions of themselves and others who lurk. In general lurkers are less optimistic and less positive than those who post.Earlier work on nonpublic participation in online communities, called lurking, found that there are a variety of different reasons why people don't participate publicly and that this behavior differs according to the type of community. For example, the average number of lurkers in technical support communities is almost twice as high as in medical support communities [1,2]. The work that we report here builds on this earlier work. Our primary objective was to better understand the nature of lurking. We wanted to understand lurkers' B. Nonnecke

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