對於網路社群中的潛水現象之理解，我們不是相對的忽視，就是誤以為是一種少量參與、沒有貢獻、搭便車、甚至危害社群成員討論張力的行為。但若進一步檢視，會發現潛水者的特徵：少量發言是被過度強調的，頻繁上線卻常被忽略，導致我們以為潛水者沒有學習、沒有參與。對於潛水者的界定，也往往反映了研究者對於潛水的理解與不適切的期待。
從“少量發言”卻“規律參與”這一組潛水者特徵，做為一個分析的起點工具，在一個353人的網路探究式學習社群中，辨識出95位潛水者。本文採社會文化取徑，藉助Lave & Wenger之情境學習與Wenger之社會的學習理論的周邊性、參與、具化、疏離、協商、認同等概念，從一種社會行為而非個人行為的觀點，來細察其幽微心思與所展現的隱晦姿態，提出了以下的研究問題：
1. 在看似少量回應的上線文章數據面貌下，潛水者的投入內涵為何？
2. 潛水者針對所處的潛隱位置，如何透過協商展現其參與姿態與樣貌？
從學習者對於學習社群的體驗，理解他們如此參與的關鍵意義，挖掘出潛水者的投入內涵與協商策略在一種劣勢的社群氛圍下，是極具意義性的：見縫插針、另起爐灶，取得討論目光、偷窺、社交言談，給出“一起感”、或透過“隱”的投入回應“明”的規範，協商參與位置…所寓含的是潛水者即便站在周邊位置，但維持一種既疏離又緊密聯繫的關係，則反映了他們對於社群的歸屬與認同。這是潛水者所欲給出的參與意義，也是他們協商性之豐厚展現。
揭露一般人所難以體察協商過程與認同形成的深刻學習意義，破除刻板印象、對理所當然的預設有所驚覺，而能深入現象的本質給出持平卻多元而饒富意義的理解，是本文的目的，而這種理解也正是本文的研究意涵之所在。

Lurking, the discursive phenomenon, in an online community is often neglected. From Wenger’s social theory of learning and Lave''s LPP, this study explores the characteristic of lurkers, one who “post occasionally” but “online regularly”, in order to scrutinize lurkers’ subtle intentions and their obscure posture. We identify 95 lurkers from 353 participants in an inquiry-based learning community and approach from a virtual ethnography to uncover their process of negotiability and identification.

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