Are you being shy?

[Alicorn]

Do people feel deterred from posting new topics in a way they do not feel deterred from posting in existing threads? Should I be gratuitously entopicking anything I vaguely suspect people might want to talk about even if no one has displayed the slightest active interest in making topics for these things themselves?

[Shoal]

it is easier to respond to something someone else said than to say something novel.

[Kappa]

I think people are likelier to post in existing threads than to post new topics, but part of the reason might be that it's easier to think of a reply than a new topic. Which gratuitous entopicking still might help with.

[Shoal]

I think people are likelier to post in existing threads than to post new topics, but part of the reason might be that it's easier to think of a reply than a new topic. Which gratuitous entopicking still might help with.

[AndaisQ]

I do feel kind of guilty about casual topic-spawning. I can stop feeling that if it would be more appropriate, which I suspect from the existence of this thread that it would.

[Lambda]

Overwillingness to create topics would result in the board being cluttered with only marginally worthwhile minithreads with zero to three replies each. Replying is more interaction-y, which is good for ensuring signal-not-noise-ness of one's contribution, and for supporting a community of people that give each other attention rather than ignoring and talking past each other.

[Kappa]

I think that, at the board's current rate of topic-spawning and topic-replying, more threads would not be excessive.

[Alicorn]

I can always subdivide the forum further if it becomes warranted so everything stays relatively easy to find. I want ACTIVITY, DAMMIT.

[Bluelantern]

I am not always sure if a subject demands a thread by itself, of if I can... "grow" it to something more relevant, like... one for "What if you put this template in *this* world/situation that is different from effulgence" which would be speculative nonsense fun but feels... I don't know... "intrusive"?

[Tamien]

Recently, I have mostly been busy, not shy. Most of my activity has been in response to reading new things of yours which I am just now about to have much more time for (I was in the middle of a cross-country move which I have just finished), so I will probably be more active again now.

I tend to create threads for things as they occur to me to create. I feel about as comfortable starting a new thread as I do replying to current ones, so for me it is mainly that it's easier to think of a reply than a whole new topic. Sometimes I do wonder a thing and then look for a thread to post it in as a reply rather than creating a new thread when I suspect that it is relevant to an already-extant thread topic.

I will say I feel a slight reticence to post sometimes due to the way that I, for some reason, tend to read your responses to posts as "slightly annoyed at what was said and responding out of a feeling of obligation to correct it", even though they are generally textually neutral, and keep having to remind myself that you're probably responding because you want to and enjoy the discussion and not because you feel like you have to set us straight or something else. I don't think it's stopped me from posting anything, and I can usually defeat it quickly, but it keeps coming back when I read new responses of yours and I'm not sure why. Maybe I just don't have enough experience parsing "Alicorn said X about Z" into "Alicorn feels Y about Z" yet? In which case, having some information about how you generally feel about the sorts of conversations that have been going on might help me to construct a competing attribution in which posts are better-received than I keep thinking they are, and thus make me feel more encouraged to post. Knowing that you want more activity helps me build a "what we have been doing is good and we should do more of it" hypothesis, so that is already good. So um, I guess, are there any particular types of topic you have enjoyed seeing and wish to encourage especially?