is it just me ? :-)

[John Allain]

> (Jay) I notice there are a ton of people who lurk. 
> Rarely or never posting. 

When I lurk I do it as a courtesy to prevent blather-feed-forward loops.
That is, when everyone tries to get in on the same bad joke or whatever
and the few (hundred!) lurkers that remain have to delete 120 messages
a day for four consecutive days.

Another courtesy I practice is when a question I can answer comes 
up, I read till end of list to see if it's already been answered and let
that be too.  On questions where I know there are better experts present
I'll wait a half day or so for them, then answer if there's still nothing.

> (James) ... the pissing contests that seem to erupt on the list. 

The correct term, unfortunately.

John A.