I've been a lurker on IH...

I wrote this for people like you. ❤️

Hey Sukhpal!

IH is a very welcoming community, and you should definitely try to become active! Hopefully, I can offer some reassurance on some of these points:

Fear of being judged: Business/Startup advice is all over the place so I feel like a fraud regurgitating the same points over and over (especially since I haven't personally experienced the lessons)

Everyone here is learning, growing, and sharing together. You likely won't be judged unless you ask to be judged! We all understand the struggle of trying to go from nothing to thousands in revenue, and we're here to support each other.

Making friends can be overwhelming: There's a lot of cool folks online, but if we start a conversation and don't end up becoming pals, it feels..a bit fake?

I don't think you necessarily need to make friends with everyone you talk to here! It may be that your expectation is making it harder for you to reach out than it needs to be :)

For example, who knows if you and I will talk again - either way, I just hope that my post helps you in some way, and that's enough for me!

Spam: When you post in multiple places, people might be pissed that you're showing/saying the same things over and over again. Everything has to be unique right?

Not everything has to be unique! I wouldn't go as far as to self-promote constantly, but if you're just offering your thoughts on peoples' questions, asking questions yourself, and taking interest in others in the community, that makes you a very valuable member and a great addition to the group!

I've felt this way about every community I've joined and this stops me from being an actual contributor.

I totally get it. Hopefully the positive replies help you feel a bit more at home here. I will say that there are a lot of communities out there, but none of them have quite the magic of this one. I think you'll find it to be a very friendly place!

Yeah, it always take courage to put yourself out there. For me it helps to think that I am my own biggest critic. People in the Indie Hackers community and on Twitter are usually very supportive.

I've also always been a lurker -- one of my goals this year is to put myself out there and contribute rather than always lurking.

I relate to all your points, on fear of being judged I think I also have a "who cares what I have to say" problem. Not that I'll be judged, but more just that nobody will care so what's the point?

We'll see how contributing goes, maybe lurking really is the best and I'll be back to it in a few months haha.

Hey, I felt the same and I'm sure many others do as well. Posting this is a great step forward towards being a contributor!

Just wanted to say thank you to the folks that responded.

I hope everyone that finds this is in the future, including me, learns the importance of putting your thoughts out, fighting the 100 totally-in-your-head reasons to not. Every contribution is a positive one, and it needs to be said, by you.

Well firstly well done because you didn't delete this one!

Write posts, comments etc only as much as you feel like - we all operate in different ways :)

Yup, this is me

hey hey , hope you're doing great over there! ;) cheers

Lurkers are probably 90% of the trafic. Here, there, everywhere.

Wow me too! I feel like my posts are pointless so I delete them.

Just wanted to chime in and say welcome as well 😄 It's a very relatable feeling ("Making friends can be overwhelming" <-- this especially omg) but the people in communities are overwhelmingly sooo kind and even patient at times, when we may need it. Great work taking that first step and putting yourself out there! And when your own post feels like too much, don't forget commenting is just as good, too 😉

Love the transparency, welcome (again?) to the community as a non-lurker!