Is it normal feel uncomfortable about 1% rule in internet culture?

According to Wikipedia "for every one person who posts on a forum, there are at least ninety-nine other people viewing that forum but not posting."
I'm new to participating in forums in general and feel strange about the idea of just anyone reading my stories and comments. It's hard to explain. I know it's the nature of the internet. It's open and anonymous, but is it normal to feel weird (and slightly uncomfortable) about this?

Voting Results
52% Normal
Based on 42 votes (22 yes)
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Comments ( 9 )
  • invoice52

    Yes, you can make a post and 400 people will view and you might get 2 responses. Such is the way of forums. Unless your topic has a lot in common with other forum members, is a hot topic and something very silly and entertaining. There will 1000 responses to a page on cute cats and dogs vs 5 posts about the quality of drinking water.

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  • Koda

    If you ever go to the userlist of a discussion board you'll see that much fewer than 1 percent of registered users even leave a single post.

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  • Mekkars

    Are you a spectator or are you a writer?

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  • hellostrangers

    If you are saying things that are reasonably intelligent and/or useful, why should it bother you?

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  • spottytortoise

    Trust Wikipedia like you would a dog with no hair. Its just not done.

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  • misschelseaxo

    I have had an IIN app for a very long time. and I do not comment very often. so I guess I fall into that percentage.

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  • dom180

    Normally on forums, you can read at the bottom and it will often say that about 100 users are online and about 500 guests. Most people only use a forum once for advice, and would rather search for a similar post than ask again.

    I have always thought that this is because people don't know the relative friendlyness of an online community, they won't ask for fear of ridicule, so they just browse but never join.

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  • Can you really trust Wikipedia, a site that anyone can add anything at anytime? Sure it's moderated but so is this website and look at the retarded stories that pass through.

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    • You've got a point about Wikipedia, but so-called participation inequality does exist. On another forum where number of views are shown, one of my threads has been read by 400 ppl. It's just that in real life nothing I say ever reaches that many ppl (don't have Facebook), so it makes me feel strange in a way.

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