Lurker Amnesty Week 2010

Just because I like to have a sense of who exactly I'm writing for, I'm declaring  what began this morning at 12:01 a.m. to be Lurker Amnesty Week 2010. 

If you're reading this and comment all the time, skip the rest of this post.

If you're reading this and have never commented, feel free to leave a comment. 

If you're reading this and have never commented and would rather not comment, feel free to send me an email at allmynamessquishedtogether at gmail dot com.  

If you're reading this and have never commented and would rather not comment and don't do email, then I'm not even sure how you're reading this, but feel free to contact me via whatever medium is valued by your people.

Because as someone who spends his working days stressing the importance of knowing (and knowing how to manipulate) (not that I would) the audience one addresses, my ignorance of you is more than a little disconcerting.  You need not use your real name or even your regular pseudonym, but please do give a sense of who you are, how you got here and why you've stayed, so that I might make this place more hospitable to good folk like you.

Comments

[Canid]

I'm a PhD candidate in creative writing at a Big Red State University, and I teach cw and comp...and I keep lurking here looking for ideas to, uh, borrow....

[Sharon]

I am a tenure track literature prof at a small liberal arts college in the USA. I like hearing your comments on academia and life so I subscribe and check your site daily. I don't think I've ever commented before.

[NMW]

Tenured professor of philosophy in Canada. I no longer remember how I got here. I stay for comic books and sarcasm. It's a spiritual experience.

[Jennifer]

I'm a recent college grad who got here through the blogroll of some other blog that I can't remember. I've stayed because you're funny and I like reading about your teaching methods. (I've got a keen interest in pedagogy. And being amused.) I also help run this--tnisyllabus.tumblr.com--and am always looking for good links and blog posts.

[Carolyn]

I'm a high school social studies dept chair. I happened across some of your text adventure posts, thanks to StumbleUpon, and stayed because I like the topics of your other posts too - cinema, linguistics, politics, visual communications, education, etc.

[latinist]

I'm an ABD grad student in Classics; I only recently found this blog, and read it because it's funny, it's interesting, reading it in no way contributes to my dissertation, etc.

[Robert M.]

I'm a Ph.D. student in education; I came for the whinging about grading, and stayed for the comic-book/literature geekery and generally high-class snark. (I also keep LGM in my RSS feed, so I frequently get double doses of your posts these days.)

[J]

Hey! I first stumbled here for the fantastic detailed Batman scene analyses (fundraiser scene and Batman as horror monster), stayed for the humor. You regularly make me laugh like a maniac.

[John]

You make me completely uncomfortable so I never say a word. You make me completely uncomfortable with your words.

[dave]

PhD candidate in English at a Canadian university. I came for the comics and movies and stay for everything else.

[middlebrow]

I think I may have commented once, but I mostly don't. We met at the ALA Naturalism conference a couple years ago. Oh, and you link to me, which is cool. I'll try to graduate from almost never comments to infrequently comments. Your blog is entertaining sir.

[Barrysaunders]

I'm a recovering academic and politics tragic, who loves your film theory and politics. I read your pieces about academic life and am happy that I left the academy for greener pastures.

[cfl]

UCLA alum, t-t in English on the West Coast. Don't remember how I first got here, but I've been reading off and on for about four years. I read for the witty pop culture crit as well as to learn a thing or two about pedagogy.

[Amy]

I'm a freshman undergrad majoring in polisci/english/history somewhere in Texas. I'm here for the politics but find everything else pretty fascinating too. And funny, of course.

[Mark]

I generally don't comment, except once or twice to notify you of things like the history of animated "under construction" gifs. I'm an anthropology grad student in the Bay Area and enjoy your tales of academia as well as your pop culture analyses. I think I found your blog through a link to your story about finding a couple in flagrante in your office.

[Chris Clarke]

Frequent reader, extremely sporadic commenter.

[Caio]

Recent college grad, English major, aspiring writer and possible hack. Got here through a recommendation in a comment thread on lesswrong.com, of all places. I enjoy all your posts, for the style if not the subject matter (although usually the subject matter too). I like the comics posts best.

[JKC]

History Undergrad at Hippie-filled Forest Uni that isn't Berkeley, here. Probably first started reading the comparisons of Spencer's intellectual legacy and his actual thoughts--but it was definitely the humor that caught me.

[SeanH]

London-based philosophy MA student and videogame enthusiast; I think I got here via a link from Making Light on the topic of Jack Cashill's literary analysis[1]. High-powered analysis of pop culture is what keeps me here.

[1]Did you ever hear Henry More's theory that Pythagoras was a Jew who inherited his philosophy from Moses, and thus passed it on to Plato and Plotinus, and so on in like fashion until Descartes, thus providing a clear link between the Meditations on First Philosophy and the Old Testament? Now that's a bold thesis. This lot today just don't have the imagination.

[alex]

Academic at an English university; working in mathematical linguistics.