> I think that may be a lot of what's behind why we're having this thread. You are far from the first person to feel that way. Most people probably have, including me at times: I put the work into what I think is a good forum post, and it goes without replies. But did it go without replies because nobody cared or because nobody had anything to add? Some posts are like that. They don't always invite continuing conversation. It's the same way anywhere else, only anywhere else you'd get a kind of default acknowledgement, the "uh huh" or equivalent, that doesn't really communicate anything except the signal that the message was received -- which, surprisingly, sometimes makes all the difference.
>
> The way I've dealt with that is just to accept that that's the way the forum works here. It sunk in a lot better once I started counting the number of posts I thought were insightful and valuable but didn't have a reply for. If *I* was keeping quiet over a number of posts I derived value from, obviously others were, too.
>

It might help to have some way of indicating that a post has been read/enjoyed without having to craft a reply that lives up to the usual intellectual/creative standards.

On Yahoo message boards, you can anonymously "recommend" a post to show your approval. Anyone viewing the post can see that it has however many recs, and the poster can know his work was appreciated.

There have been a few times I wished I could "recommend" a post in this forum.

^v^:)^v^
FB