Raise your hands if...

Voluntary participation is always tricky, but on-line communities make it even more difficult for a wide range of people to jump in. If you check our discussion boards, you will note the same rule as this observer:

User participation often more or less follows a 90-9-1 rule:

• 90% of users are lurkers (i.e., read or observe, but don't contribute).
• 9% of users contribute from time to time, but other priorities dominate their time.
• 1% of users participate a lot and account for most contributions: it can seem as if they don't have lives because they often post just minutes after whatever event they're commenting on occurs.

As one who has been involved with many volunteer organizations, I understand the frustration participants feel with free riders. While it seems like this trend to passive participation has accelerated, I am not sure it is the case.

Regardless, it may not take many to make things work. Perhaps we have always been propelled forward by the tiniest handful of overactive volunteers.

So to those of you who do take the risk to join in actively, my sincere gratitiude. And for those of you who do not, thanks for reading our work.