I as well. I've been 'lurking' on hacker news for almost two years. It doesn't mean I don't want to participate, it's just that whenever I do have something to say it's typically been addressed already by another user (the topics I'd probably post on are the hot-topics that draw more eyes.) And I'd rather not add redundancy to comments. To me the natural game mechanics that arise from 'gunning for karma' by being first to post (relevantly) takes a lot of effort.
That's basically where I'm at (speaking of redundancy).
I'm usually afraid to say something wrong, since I know that there are always experts on the topic of the post. It makes more sense to me to let said experts explain a particular topic than to possibly disseminate wrong information, even though I might have a useful perspective to add.
People shouldn't be afraid to say something wrong. If you say something wrong, people should correct you and everyone will learn (including readers that don't know anything about the subject).
The issue is if people that see that you're wrong, instead of correcting you, just downvote you. In my opinion, a wrong statement should not be buried with downvotes, it should stay at 1 point with a reply that corrects it and that get a lot of upvotes.
I started posting less when the karma ratio became a big deal. But you can still pick up a point or two here and there by making encouraging comments to people far down a thread. This does add value to the community, but it's not a big shot-in-the-arm like a popular submission or a relevant "first post". They do, however, add up.
