I’ve been a member on this site for about a dozen years, give or take a little time off for ‘issues’. Anyway, I just looked it up and there are 7,666 members to the site. Just wondering out loud how many are active and participate beyond lurking? No answer necessary. As I said, just wondering.
Allan
Hi. My name is Allen. I just got started fly fishing and fly tying last year, in warm-water. I participate mostly by reading everything I can, pertaining to the species I fish for. I will ask questions when I feel I need to. I don’t really feel qualified to give anyone advice at this time, due to my status as a newby.
I feel a lot of them are or were just lurking. I can remember when we had over 9,000 members. This is still the best place to be for fly fishing anything. I do not know what I would do if I did not have FAOL to go to everyday.
Since the economic downturn my participation is way down. Also having two young children with many interests my days on the water are far and few between. For the most part these days I lurk. I try and look through the posts and articles weekly. I like FAOL. I’ve been a member here for over 10 years. In all that time I haven’t found a better fly fishing website or group of fly anglers. 
for almost over two years i was hospitalized due to medical issues and schools. but i’m back and trying to become more active.
I’m not suggesting that anyone in particular is asking for it, but I don’t think I nor anyone else should have to apologize for how much they do or don’t post here. I’ve been a member here for 12 years or so I think, since back in the days of the old board format, and while I check in on the site literally every day, the reality is I don’t feel compelled to post most days. That’s just my personality. I’m never the most chatty or extroverted guy in any given room, and the same applies for this virtual “room”. For those of you that feel compelled to post very frequently, more power to you, but just like the fact that there will be some people at the family gathering that seem to do a great deal of the talking and others that are just as much a part of the gathering without saying all that much, so it will be here. One style doesn’t infer belonging any more than the other.
Traffic is down on all of the fly fishing boards from its peak a few years ago. The exceptions are boards on fly fishing sites where people discuss subjects other than fly fishing, especially where current events and politics are discussed.
As for me, I can’t fly fish any more so I no longer ask questions about it. I do try to answer questions when I think I can help.
As I type this there are 178 people on line…only 7 of those are members. You decide how many people lurk on this site…
Brad
I don’t understand the motivation to just “lurking”. I do note a lot of folks getting involved in discussions where they have nothing to contribute. They will preface their comment with something like “I have never ----” but then go on to add some irrelevant point. Fly fishing is a great “lifetime” activity. Even when you are as old as me, and no longer fish,you can still tie flies and lead tying classes. What I do note over the years is that there seems to be more personal conversations and less devotion to the topics. I sure hope the site continues forever.
This isn't necessarily a correct assumption. I often check this site without logging on as a member. I generally only sign in if I want to add something (rarely) or respond to an ad on the classified (often). I check a half dozen boards daily and am a member of all of them although I rarely sign in on most. I suspect many are in a similar boat, but hey, I could be wrong.
I have never----
Sorry Ray, couldn’t resist it. 
Being just a Viewer (note: I did not use the term Lurker as it could have a connotation of being something bad or evil) is not a bad thing.
Being a Viewer means that people come on, take a look around, read some of the articles and also, and this is important as well, they see who some of our sponsors are. All in all, I don’t mind viewers, and sometimes they become participants.
More power to them and if you are a Viewer, feel free to join our group or sign on if you are already a member. We really don’t bite. Honest.
Larry —sagefisher—
With all due respect Brad, I too think this is an erroneous assumption. I do the exact same thing. I can go a month or more sometimes without having logged on, because I didn’t have anything to post, so my multiple trips here throughout the day would typically show up in the stats as a “non-member”. I would imagine that distortion of the stats is going to be true pretty much all the time, with even prolific posters often viewing without having logged on until they decide to respond to something, thereby adding to the high percentage of supposed non-members reported vs. the relative handful that are actually logged on and reported by the software as members.
To be honest I was just lurking and decided to log on and reply.My reasons are different though,it is now deer season and that is taking a lot of my time up,also I have developed a hobby with a weihbaugh air gun and have been lurking those sites.Along with fall leaf blowing and going through the motions of trading my Toyota double cab and buying a new 4runner(thank god for Japanese built truck platform and not crossover!)So my time on here is brief til fishing season resumes.
The way I figure it…traffic is traffic. Whatever your life or whims allow for. And when and if you do stop in, hopefully it’s a positive experience. While I have a year-round constant in the back of my mind for my articles, I too linger longer during certain times of the year than others. I do tend to remain logged-in…but archery season tends to consume my fall time more than not. And the winter tends to be my time to tie more than the rest. My posts will ebb-and-flow along with those times as well.
After more thought to this thread - The following are just that, thoughts and nothing more. Most of the other fly fishing sites are more “social” than FAOL. By that I mean, they seem to lean more to keeping in touch with those that they know and to let everyone know what is going on in their lives. FAOL, in my opinion, is more “learning” than social. Yes, we have members that have built a close “social” connection and that is good, but, most of the time, when I view the “threads” on FAOL, I am trying to expand my learning curve and enjoy reading about new flies or equipment that others are trying. If and when I do respond to a post it is because I feel I can contribute to it or have a question about something posted that interests me but I do not understand fully what the poster is saying. The other sites, when I view them, seem to be more on “Hey, look what I just bought” or “You just have to try this new rod or reel” or “Look how great I am” or other “blow your own trumpet” statements which do not contribute to a new person to fly fishing who is interested in learning more. FAOL is full of members who enjoy sharing and helping others and not so much “hey, look at me”. That is what has kept FAOL going all these years and the others “dying on the vine”. We, the members, enjoy teaching and are not interested in “keeping secrets” so we look better than others. That sharing and teaching is what makes FAOL more of a viewing/lurking site and less of a BS site. The administrators should be proud of what they have developed with FAOL and maintained. I feel people log-in to FAOL to learn and ask questions and not to brag and BS with each other. FAOL is the world’s largest book chocked full of very priceless information and unlike a book, people can ask questions on things they do not understand and know that the membership will respond to help out. Yes, there is an area where members can be more social with each other and that is the “Chat Room”. If you just want to keep in touch with a close member and have discussions about things you have in common, go to the Chat room and have fun socializing and leave the other areas for the new people to learn and ask questions. That is what makes the Chat Room such a great benefit to FAOL. It keeps the BS separate from the other threads which relate more to teaching and sharing. FAOL has been well thought out and layed out to cover many areas. Most other sites have no designated area for just “shooting the s**t” with each other which, after awhile, becomes boring to any new fly fishers wanting to learn more. After all, people surf the net to learn more about a subject and are not interested in viewing the chit chat between the “chosen few” who dominate a site.
FAOL is a learning, teaching and sharing site which I am very proud of and I am happy to know that others use it to view/lurk. After all, a really good book is meant to teach and needs to be picked up and read many times because it is so full of great information and FAOL is a great book…
Although I’m not a “lurker” on this forum, I am on many others. The reason is simple: I have so many interests (fishing (fly and spin), flying airplanes, hiking, astronomy, automotive, tractors, etc.) that I couldn’t possibly keep up with memberships at all of my irregular haunts. I join when I find a place that seems to be answering the right kind of questions and I have a burning question of my own to ask. If I can find the direct answer to my question via a Google search, then I typically won’t join a forum.
This forum has really provided me a lot of useful information, and that is why I am a member here. As many of you know, fly-fishing has a reputation of being very exclusive, where the few make very clear what is “proper” and what is frowned upon in terms of fly-fishing behavior. On this forum, I have seen numerous people admitting to fly fishing with a live worm, a whole archive with hundreds of articles on panfish, and many other non trout-purist activities. I have also seen newbie posts warmly welcomed by the regulars.
In order to continue the positive experience, I have tried to provide information to the community, such as with infrequent fishing reports and other posts. I will note however, that the quantity of posts on the forums is low enough that I typically only stop by once or twice a week. (That’s a hint for those of you thinking of posting to go ahead and do it.)
If you click on ‘community’ at the top of the page then on ‘member list’ you will see a list of all members and their number of posts. Probably a majority have less than 10 posts and many with 0 or 1 post. My guess is the most of those with 0 or 1 post don’t even visit this site anymore.
I too read this board regularly and post very infrequently. The reason being that with the combination of living in a big city away where any decent fishing is a trip and my job/life I don’t have time to fish regularly so i am a perennial “newbie”.
Many of the regular posters are people who either have gotten to know each other over the years and who have a lot of experience/expertise to share. The nature of the beast is there will be a lot more people who are gaining from the board than those who actively/regularly post.
Why do you or should you have to sign-in each time you visit this site?
If you are a registered member you should appear as one…right?
I never sign-in just logon.
As of this moment the site shows 9 members and 158 guests viewing the site, of which, I am a member.
Hi All,
I have wondered some of the same things, as I noticed that traffic seems to be down some, but didn’t know it was down all over the net. I have not checked into the site for several days, which is not my normal habit, as I typically read it often.
I normally read the bulletin boards, and any of the features that are of interest. When I think I have something to contribute I generally comment, but find that many time what I might have added has already been added, and don’t want to chime in just to be posting something.
One of the reasons I have not posted as often is lack of fishing time. Our local lake is very low due to lack of rain, and the fishing there is just about dead. The nearest decent lake is an hour drive away, and this spring I was on call, or out of town visiting the kids, or had to work on the house or something else almost every weekend when the fishing was good. I got in very little fishing time, so my motivation is down somewhat. I am REALLY hoping this coming year will be better.
This is a great site, and I hope it continues to do well and be the source for fly fishing information that it has been for a long time.
Regards,
Gandolf