Used by permission. If you are neither a Lurker nor a Browser, this is
only a sad fairy tale.....
Once upon a time in Computerland, in a place called The List, there were
two Lurkers. They were unknown to each other but both were interested in
the very same thing. Each had come to The List to try and learn more
about the ancestors they were so interested in.
Now, both being Lurkers, they preferred to stay in the background and
say nothing. So no one else knew they were there. Except for the List
admin, who watched and waited to see what they would do.
The Listowner also knew that there were dozens of other Lurkers in the
place called The List. Although she had tried a few times to coax the
Lurkers into becoming Posters and Participants, she felt that she hadn't
been as successful as she would have liked.
Some of the Lurkers spoke to The Listowner privately so she knew they
had
lots of questions and also lots of information to share. Becase of this,
she sometimes said to herself "It would be nice if all the Lurkers each
spent just one day a month being a Poster or Participant." Then she
would
have been content. But she didn't know how to make this happen.
Time went by (as it tends to do) and, while some of the things that went
on at The List were interesting, none contained exactly the thing that
the
two Lurkers were most interested in.
The first Lurker said to herself, "I'm waiting for the thing I am
interested in to be mentioned here."
The second Lurker asked himself, "I wonder if anyone will say something
about what I am interested in?"
More time went by -- but it's hard to tell in Computerland exactly how
much time. Then, one day, the first Lurker left The List because, as she
explained privately to the listowner, no one had mentioned the thing she
was most interested in. The second Lurker, in spite of being a bit
discouraged, decided to stay on The List, watching and reading quietly,
in the hope that, eventually, someone would say something about what he
was interested in.
Meanwhile, a Browser wandered by. If truth be told, she didn't actually
go to The List although she was certainly nearby. She did decided to go
to
The List Archives to see if anything there interested her. If it did,
perhaps she would stay. Because she was interested in one thing in
particular and wanted to see if she would find it there. Although she
didn't know it, of course, this was the very same thing that the two
Lurkers were also interested in.
So, as Browsers do, she browsed through The List Archives. She found
quite a bit that was interesting and even useful there. But she did not
find any mention of what interested her the most. She sighed in
disappointment and went on her way. She had heard of other List Archives
out there. Maybe one of those held the information she was looking for.
And the moral of this little tale, dear listers,
is......................???
Happy Easter from your list admin,
Valorie
Used by permission. Copyright 2000, Andrea Vogel
<mailto:andreav@island.net>