About

Lurk Moar is a phrase used primarily on imageboards and forums to tell other users they need to post less and study the community before posting again. The phrase is frequently used as a derogatory euphemism to inform users they are not wanted/welcomed, but may also be intended as legitimate advice for new users. Previously, the acronym RTFM was used to convey the same message.

Origin

The History of Lurking

The word "Lurker" is used to describe someone who reads a message board or forum, often regularly, but rarely posts or contributes in any way. It is believed to have originated in the mid 1980's on BBS systems of the time.^[1]

According to a 2006 study by Catherine Ridings (Lehigh University), David Gefen (Drexel University), and Bay Arinze (Drexel University) entitled "Psychological Barriers: Lurker and Poster Motivation and Behavior in Online Communities"^[2] people may "lurk" due to a lack of trust for members of the community; however, in many social communities such as Anonymous boards like 4Chan, the idea of trust is hardly a common value. To help users cope with controversial content such as trolling, 4chan advises users to "lurk" before posting. When one fails to meet this requirement, they would often find their remarks and opinions met with the command, "Lurk Moar, newfag."

Origin of "Lurk Moar"

It is unknown who first used the term "lurk moar."

"Lurk Moar" is rule number 33 of The Rules of The Internet, which were written to include "Rule 33" from the very first drafts in 2006 (shown below).

"Moar" is lolspeak for "more" and is a portmanteau of the words "More" and "Roar,"^[3] spelled that way to heighten the level of enthusiasm as opposed to "more." An increase in "Moar" Google queries is congruent with the peak of Caturday's popularity in the Spring of 2007.^[4] This may explain the increase in searches for "lurk moar" at the end of 2006, which is congruent with the start of Caturday and thus hosted the frequent posting of lolcats and lolspeak.

Spread

On August 11th, 2007, zuffix posted a definition for "lurk moar" to Urban Dictionary,^[5] garnering over 610 upvotes and becoming the top definition in 14 years (shown below).

On October 1st, 2007, Flameviper posted a lurk moar image macro to DeviantArt^[7] (shown below, left). On August 4th, 2009, ontological_shock posted a cat-themed lurk moar image macro to WordPress blog Cat Macros^[8] (shown below, right).

On August 8th, 2009, RushNerd posted an image macro using the phrase to headphone forum Head-Fi.^[6] These posts represent early examples of the phrase's use online (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References