When I was looking for a title for the thread, I hesitated to use "lurking" because of the dissonance between the root meaning of the word and what "lurking" has come to mean on the Internet, where it has no newgative connotation but I couldn't think of a better wrod. THen Katlaughingwhocoinswordsatthedropofahat came up with "silent partenr". That should have been the title of the thread.

I think that the reason I started this thread is because I am a writer and love getting feedback from my readers/viewers. I figure the Mudcatters who spend a lot of effort to share their ideas in a post might like being reminded that they have a lot more readers than just the few who post replies, especially since so many thoughtful, content filled posts, especially in discussions of complex topics with a great variety of opinion, are ignored or "sideswiped". What I mean by sideswiped is that the replying poster picks a single word or thought out of a long post, and then "answers" it even though they have often taken it out of context in order to fit it to a preconceived notion.

Sourdough