Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic when and why did you de-lurk?

These stories are all so interesting. It's amazing to see how different people are. Some jump in with both feet, not waiting for anything, while others lurk for ages.

Helga, your story was so touching. Thanks for sharing it with us. Though I've never been in as a serious a predicament as that, I do know what you mean about wanting to post to share in someone's joy or sorrow, but feeling uncomfortable because to them you are a stranger.

I don't know about creepy, but it does seem a bit weird at times. I know I was a little scared to start posting and chatting at first because I felt like I already knew a lot about so many people from watching them. Also I really admired a lot of people and was terrified that they would think I was a pest. Sarah and I used to semi-lurk on IRC and get really excited when our "heroes" would talk to us. (She's probably going to kill me for exposing our dorkiness <G>)

Annie

rofl, Annie... oh, I know exactly how you feel! I was just the same way back when I first got onto IRC <g> (way back in the age of dinosaurs) It's kind of a shame that I've gotten over it, really...

PJ

LabRat (who misses Menolly and her stories...)

You sound a lot braver than me, Annie. I've been on IRC a few times in my existence (I probably still have my IRC program lurking around my comp somewhere), but I went into an L&C related channel only twice, and all of my "heroes" (and my own dorkiness comes out) were there. I stuttered out a couple of hellos and logged my butt off as fast as humanly possible.

I lurked for a month or two on Zoom's boards, along time ago, I think last year. I lurked because, from school to homework, to friends to the movies, and real life, just didn't have time to post. Also, now I have a job. You guys won't be seeing me for awhile. LMAO at Helga.

Ja-10

Jen, come back! You don't have to say much, just hide in the corner next to the ficus tree and watch while we destroy any hero-like image you may have of us!

PJ

Yes, Jen, come back! And anyone else who's scared, take my word for it, your heros aren't as intimidating as you think they are. They're just normal people - wait, what am saying? Normal is not exactly the right word here.... <EG>

In any case, I promise people will welcome you with open arms. I survived the first couple of awkward times, and you can too. You can't possibly be as pathetic as I was in the beginning.

You should have seen the first email I sent to Kathy, when I was first coming out of lurkerdom. "I know you don't know me, and, well, I totally understand if you are too busy to reply. I really don't mean to bother you. I'm sure you have lots of other things to do. And people probably email you all the time to ask for advice. And, well, I just thought maybe, if it wasn't too much trouble, you might find a little time to look at this. But if you can't, don't worry, that's ok.)

Annie (who seriously hopes Kathy doesn't have a copy of that actual email somewhere.)

as to heroes, i guess i'm kind of lucky in that department... i met people before i realized they should be heroes. wendy was my first GE, and, at the time, i didn't know her from eve (seemed odd to say "adam"). (actually, i hadn't even realized it was wendy. one day we were chatting, and i started remembering how i'd sent this email to one of my GEs trying to explain the difference between "d'oh" and "duh," remembering only that the GE in question had been a woman from the UK. then wendy piped up and explained that that had been her... )

when i got sucked into IRC, i just sort of hung out with people, and put together who they were after i'd gotten to know them. so, the awe kind of got stuck in the back of my mind before it managed to bloom. <G>

otoh, you should have seen me tripping over myself when irene logged on this one time... i rarely see her, but i'm a huge fan of her stories.

so, jen, take heart... you get used to people.

and irene, take this as a call to log in a little more often.

Paul

LOL! Nope, I don't, but I do remember it ... though interestingly enough, a little differently. <g>

Annie was posting "Anybody's Baby" to the boards, and I thought it was a neat premise with a ton of potential. So I posted some feedback, maybe made some suggestions for something I would have expected to happen that didn't, that sort of thing, when suddenly I got an email saying how much she liked my ideas and would I be willing to explain my suggestions more in depth. Talk about being delighted! <g>

See, normally when I post suggestions to a new author, I always worry I'm going to upset them. After all, you never know when you are going to run into someone who *says* they want constructive feedback when all they really want to hear is, "this is great! Don't change a thing!", and you get burned. So I try to be pretty careful about what I say if I don't know someone. So to actually have a author come back and tell me that they were fascinated by what I said and would I be willing to expand on them? Now how could I *not* love that?? LOL.

But to keep this on topic, I'll give my own delurking story.

In the summer of 1995 (before the 3rd season started), I was home on maternity leave, but my office was trying to entice me to come back early. My husband had been wanting to buy a new computer for some time, but I had been balking. After all, ours worked fine for the stuff we did, so why spend the money? "Ah!" he said, "But we could get on the internet!" Big deal, I scoffed ... what could I *possibly* do on the internet? (Yes, I'll wait while you all stop laughing -- the irony is quite striking, isn't it? )

Eventually, we did get that new computer; my office offered to let me pilot a work from home program for them if I would come back early, and my extra earnings would pay for the computer I'd need to do that work. My husband installed all the software and was trying to explain to me about using Netscape to visit websites. "But I don't know any websites," I protested. He pulled up Yahoo.com ... "type in 'Lois and Clark'," he suggested, trying to get me comfortable with his new toy. "I bet you can find information out about it." Talk about wishing he could go back and relive a day ...

The first thing I found was a big fan site about the show, and was astounded and delighted beyond belief. (I can't remember who ran it, but it was the main one at the time.) There were links to a lot of things, but one of them was fanfic. Fanfic? What the heck? The link took me to a page with a few stories (Zoomway's Counter Clark-Wise was there) and eventually led me to Rhen's mailing list and the majordomo list (this was pre-Archive). I was hooked immediately.

Another link was to info about IRC ... that sounded interesting, but you had to download this program ... that sounded really intimidating. I finally got the courage up to ask my husband about it and he poked around online until he found a program to use, and I finally summounded my courage and signed on. I think my first visit was on a Monday, and there weren't too many people there -- a dozen or so. (LOL, which of course totally cracks me up now; shows you how busy IRC was back then when 10-12 people was a slow night.) I was nervous, but people were really friendly and when I left, people actually invited me to come back! (I remember Dan Shawler saying I was "a nice, well-behaved newbie" and everyone laughing when I mistakingly assumed Zoomway was a guy. )

I did come back a couple more times that week, and was told that Sunday nights were when it got *really* busy; after the eps aired in the US, tons of peopled logged on. I was so curious, I just had to come ... "Contact" had just aired that night ... and, after I got over the shock of seeing 50, 60, 70 people in a chat room , the rest is history.

Kathy

Hm...

Can't exactly remember when I delurked at first. My first intro to FoLCs was online - I joined the fanfic list in 1998, when it was still on indiana.edu. I expect I sat around for a week or so to get a feel for the list, as that's what I'd been told to do when I went to Yahoo's chatrooms - sit around and lurk for a while to get a feel for what kind of room it is. But then someone posted something that I felt I could contribute to, and so I posted, and they replied, and next thing I know, I'm writing to all these great people and getting to know them, and reading their fic... Well, I don't stay shy long, as any FoLC'll tell you, so when I got on IRC, I didn't lurk at ALL, nor when I got on Zoom's boards. And hey, the mods here have tried to shut me up a few times, but I still post

Melisma (under her Rock, really needing to do some work, since classes start tomorrow, but hey, this is way more fun! Let's just say she understands what the students on the list are talking about, not just as a former student herself but from the other side of the desk...)

Kathy, I loved your de-lurking story -- how funny!! )

You didn't wait long enough for me.

Great de-lurking story.

Kathy, you had me in stitches!

As for everyone else, you're not supposed to make irc sound intimidating! I'm sure it says that in the irc manual somewhere -

"The only problem a newbie to irc should have is finding time to download it and figure out how everything works. S/he should not be reminded that s/he will meet his/her heros, nor should s/he be introduced to the idea that s/he may feel nervous about said meeting of heros."

Believe or not I hadn't even thought about it til everyone brought it up!

Loriel (who will find time to download it and will not be intimidated... if at all possible!)

These de-lurking stories are so great! I enjoyed reading every one of them.


So I guess I should share my own .

When I got the internet back in 96 or 97, the first thing I searched online was "Lois and Clark" and boy was I surprised with all of the information I found. I went to the AOL message boards - and was so amazed that so many people were talking about Lois and Clark. Since I didn't like to be spoiled about episodes, and didn't really care about learning about the actors (I am weird like that - I don't like to see the actors as real people rather than their characters), I immediately went to the final part of the board - and I found people writing stories about Lois and Clark. Initially, I was SHOCKED that people would do something like that. But I realized that I loved it - and I would keep comming back to the AOL boards to see if someone had posted a new section. My mom and sister both knew what I was doing, and I had said, in amazement, "Mom, look, people are wrtiting stories about Lois and Clark". My sister had not been so impressed and she said, "(insert real name), you have no life." So she deemed whenever I would be online - going to visit my no life club.

After a long time lurking there, I decided to try to write a story myself - and the rest is history. Then I found the archive before it was the archive (when it was the ftp site) and the rest was history .

But I guess I was still sort of a lurker - because I was scared of chatting on IRC. I was also scared of trying to talk to all of the amazing writers whose stories I had read and loved (which is why I am still bad at sending feedback!). That is my biggest problem - I am so shy to say anything initially in any situation with people I really don't know. But whenever I get going it is pretty much impossible to shut me up!

Then I found zmbs - whenever they began - and Plan9Lives was just about the only person writing there. And I was hooked - and finally started posting. However, I still was too afraid to go on IRC. I downloaded the program, but had only gone on once - must have been a really bad time because there was noone I recognized even on at the time.

But then I had some major personal problems that overwhelmed me starting in late 2000/early 2001 that sort of cut back on my time extensively. Sick parents, harder school work, trying to get 2 degrees at once... so something had to give. And it was my own writing and active participation on the boards . So I relagated myself to lurking again. As much as I tried to tell myself that I couldn't and that I didn't have time, I still made my monthly trip to the boards to see what was going on and my monthly trip to the archive - even if I didn't really have time to read the new stories. But I did compile a list of the stories on the archive that I want to read, but haven't yet.

So why did I delurk again? I am not entirely sure, actually, but maybe it was because after last semester (my first as a true graduate student with a degree and everything ) which had been the semester from hell - one class took up 70 hours a week with the stupid homework assignments it had - and most of the time we struggled to get them done not even to get them right. I finally felt like I had time to breathe - and enjoy my favorite lesiure activity again. It felt like a vacation this semester when one class had only abougt 6 hours of homework a week, the other class had 20 hours of homework every two weeks, and TAing and research only took up the rest of what a normal 40 hr a week job would. So I felt like I finally had free time again - and what better place to waste my free time?

And I think another thing that sort of catalysed my return to L&C was that in my applied neural control class last semester, we had to write a paper whose goal was to be geared towards the average reader that had an interest in science about Christopher Reeve and his late recovery from spinal cord injury. And, even though I am not a big fan of the Superman movies - somehow I really loved researching and writing this paper. In fact, I was one of the only people in the class that had followed the assignment - I wrote a story about "Superman or Superneuroscientists? You be the judge." And I had so much fun writing it! Well, I got the highest grade in the class - not hard to do when people like my friend, who had grown up in ethiopia and hadn't ever heard of Superman before, wrote a paper about someone named Christopher Reed. But one day when I was writing that paper, I had this really insane dream about L&C being professors that developed something that saved Christopher Reeve... and the beginnings of my latest story was born.

And then once I became active again, I decided that I was going to try ot stay on the perhiphery. Well, that was when I got an email from Wendy telling me that people shared spoilers for story parts on IRC. Even though I had class at the time she told me that the IRC spoilers took place, I decided to download the IRC program anyway. And now that school is over, I finally have time to chat! And last Saturday was the first time I had really gone on IRC. And I completely understand the feeling of all of your idols being there and being intimidated! I'm still intimadated, but I just hide it very well .

So that was my long, long story . I hope I didn't bore anyone to death.

- Alicia

It's been really interesting reading all of these delurking stories. It took me quite a while to delurk, and then I did it in stages. Although I found elements of the online fandom in the summer of 1995, I didn't participate in any group activities at that stage: I joined the old LOISCLA list, but saw far too many spoilers for Season 3 eps which I hadn't seen yet, so quit again in the same afternoon. However, I did find fanfic, and began devouring avidly!

And then at some point, a year or two later, I rejoined LOISCLA and then the fic list, jumping into some very enjoyable discussions there - I remember one about when Lois fell in love with Clark, as opposed to Superman, in which Kathy and Zoomway were disagreeing animatedly with each other. Fanfic writing came a little later, in early 1998, I think, when it occurred to me that I'd always loved writing and that I should give it a try. This, of course, was in pre-MB days, and so my stories went straight to the Archive. I couldn't believe it, the morning after the first one went up, when my work inbox had about half a dozen feedback emails!

IRC came later still, and that was because, much to my shock and disbelief, I had been nominated for Kerths.

I will be fully honest. I still lurk. I am not ashamed either. I am a very inward and quiet person. I always have this fear that I sound stupid so I just stay out, (I know that sounds silly).

That is my story.

Thank you.

Anni, it doesn't sound silly at all. But if you let yourself delurk one of these days, you'll find a very friendly crowd and I hope you will feel welcome and at home. Fear to sound stupid is natural, but I think we all experience it now and again.

Don't be afraid to post feedback to stories you enjoy: authors thrive on feedback - and 'loved it, post more!' messages are extremely welcome, too; they represent a huge encouragement to your favourite writers. And never be afraid to ask questions about how things work around here: there are no stupid questions. All in all, don't be afraid to post! We're a truly friendly bunch. Not completely sane, all right, , but we're basically nice.

Kaethel (wondering if you're Anni from #loisclark or another Anni)

I guess that while I'm here I might just as well tell my own delurk story. [g] Keeping it in a separate post since it's irrelevant with the previous one.

When I first got hooked onto the internet, back in late June 1998, I immediately discovered fanfic and started to devour every story I could get my hands on. I quickly became accustomed to a few authors' style and got my favourites, for whom I would drop everything and rush to the archive. And since I'd always enjoyed writing, I decided to try my hand at it around the same time as well, with no intent whatsoever to share it with anyone, let alone post it somewhere on the net where people could read it! No way!

My first brush with delurking was when I sent a feedback email to Debby Stark about her Dawning series. I was so sure she would never reply to me, that no-one would ever want to reply to someone they didn't know at all and who just happened to email them out of the blue about a story they had written (oh the misconceptions!)! But a few days later, much to my surprise, I got a very friendly reply from her where she replied to my comments in details and explained her plot and characterisation choices to me. I was thrilled! But being shy as I am (no, don't laugh, I am truly shy ), I didn't dare reply.

I kept reading fanfic and writing in my own little private corner. Or, I should say, dabbling. I was only just practicing my written English, which, as my teacher that year had told me, wasn't my forte. :p Fanfic reading came to the rescue on that front, and I felt a little more confident after ingesting (no, not literally [g]) thousands of pages. Still, being ESL is what held me back from getting out of lurkdom. Well, that, and the lack of available flat rate offer in my country.

However, when the 1999 Kerth ceremony came, I couldn't resist. After all, I'd sent votes in, and so I wanted to see if the stories I supported would win. I downloaded irc, logged on, and gasped when I saw the huge number of people talking and laughing and cheering at the winners. I remember I was first totally puzzled to see so many of my favourite authors there! Part of me hadn't realised that all those famous names truly existed beyond the electrons on my monitor, until I saw them talk. And I also remember that one of my first comment was to ask them how come they all knew each other. It was amazing. They got into the channel one after another, and under weird nicks, and people immediately greeted them by their real name. I remember (weird things the memory holds back sometimes) that one of them was laughing about sending hubby and kids to McDonald's to get the house for herself during the ceremony.

Everyone was very friendly, and I had a wonderful time. Since they had told me they gathered on #loiscla (old, old channel that isn't used any more AFAIK), I thought I would try this irc thing again soon. That's the worst thing that happened to my phone bill... but one of the best things that happened to me.

A few days later, though, my jaw literally hit the floor when I got an email from one of my favourite authors thanking me for my support (I had told her I'd loved her story on the Kerthchat channel). We started a correspondence from then on, because I happened to tentatively mention that I was trying my hand at writing, and she offered to BR for me. She was my first BR, and even though she's left the fandom and we've lost touch, I'm really grateful for the encouragement and help she provided back then.

Then things went quickly: I joined the ficlist a few weeks after irc, and started to post there, if not regularly, then at least more than I'd ever thought I would. As for the boards, I lurked on the old zoomway.com MBs for a few months before I registered to post my first fanfic (blaming El for twisting my arm to do so, btw [bg]).

And ditto what others mentioned, re.seeing your fanfic-heroes on irc! It's extremely intimidating at first, but quickly you realise they're completely normal people. Their writing leaves you in awe, but their friendliness and generosity are even more amazing.

Kaethel (who's been very lucky to develop a few close friendships on irc that will probably last a lifetime )

Yeah. I'm the AnniWrite.

<--- Me, I just ate ice cream.

Anni

Best thing I've ever done.

Now, how about posting:

• Near Wild Heaven II
• A Hundred Tears Away
• A Hundred Tears Away
• A Hundred Tears Away
• A Hundred Tears Away
• A Hundred Tears Away
• A Hundred Tears Away
• A Hundred Tears Away
• A Hundred Tears Away
• A Hundred Tears Away
• A Hundred Tears Away

Darn, the list thingy got stuck somehow...

Elena