The purpose of the study was to find out the characteristics of the lurkers on BBS. A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data for this study. 111 valid questionnaires were returned to the researchers.
The findings of data analysis showed that (1) female were more likely being lurkers than male, (2) lurkers were less skilled at typing than nonlurkers, (3) lurkers were more afraid of expressing themselves than nonlurkers, and (4) lurkers were more influenced by their friends than nonlurkers. More findings were discussed in the paper.