This isn't the SBA forum. They have or had one and the last time I looked it had very low discussion participation. To my knowledge this is the most active steamboating forum there is. If you know of another steamboating forum not steam or boating forum that is more active, please point it out.
Yes, several posters have participated here over the years, some simply have a few questions and once they receive the information they seek, they're gone. Most are probably just readers that don't want to participate in the discussion, which is fine. They leave it to people like me to make fools of themselves
Lots of people start to get in to this and once they realize how expensive it is, they drop out.
Mostly I think it is Steamboaters are typically an older group and we just aren't in to social media as much as the younger traction engine, experimental and model steam crowd are whose numbers dwarf our ranks.
Also, looking at the "Views" numbers don't really mean anything on this forum, every time the thread and page within it is opened it counts as a view, even by the same IP address. 100 views in reality could only be 10-15 people.
""Actually I spend a bit of time on various forums, and don't see the same type of response from people on other forums like I see from some people here.""
I used to and me neither. This forum has always been a more professional and congenial atmosphere.