lurker

What it means

Someone who reads posts, watches streams, or follows a community without ever commenting, liking, or otherwise participating. Lurkers observe silently, so their presence is felt but rarely seen.

Examples

• Shoutout to all the lurkers in the chat.
• I'm a lurker in that group, never post.
• Most subreddit members are silent lurkers.
• Come out of lurking and say hi sometime!

Where it comes from

Early internet and forum slang from the 1980s and 1990s, where new users were told to 'lurk before you post.' It carried over to social media, Twitch, and Discord culture.

Related slang