The constructive lurker is a person who regularly reads online forums but rarely posts. These individuals may have a high degree of sophistication within the topic of any given forum, but lack the time or willingness to post the detailed replies they feel that the topic at hand deserves. Lurkers of this sort are not shy about posting, but instead prefer not to start a discussion they do not have the time to finish. When these lurkers do post, they often provide well thought-out and detailed contributions to the discussion at hand. A constructive lurker is often a veteran of several previous online discussion forums. Having been involved in many heated online discussions in the past these lurkers are often willing to allow the more active forum members to hash out the obvious and may only contribute when the discussion takes a novel turn.