I think Goodreads is an amazing site, but I don’t participate in the forums.

Because mods.

I used to love forums until they became heavily trafficked by moderators. Which is fine, but they can be mean and power-hungry and I’m sensitive and having to read an introductory post on how to participate and what is and isn’t allowed in an online forum kind of takes the “casual-ness” out of the whole thing. The honor code doesn’t exist anymore for popular forums. I suppose there’s always 4chan, but as far as I know, there’s no honor there.

I used to participate in the Smashboards forums, but the mods were notoriously strict, and let’s face it; the internet has become way more jerkier since the millennium. The know-it-alls, snooty knowledge-slingers and trolls far outnumber the genuine people there just to share information and help others out. It’s just not as fun as the 90s.

So I lurk.

Just last week, a Facebook group I was a member of called out all the lurkers for not being more active in the group, and said maybe the group wasn’t for us. A sweet girl tried to stand up for us introverts, bless her, addressing our ninja mentality of striking when the time is right. But the group leader didn’t seem to approve.

So I left.

#LurkerNation. Unite!

(The ninja code of honor is strong.)

~Tael