This is apart of my problem along with the inability to think of interesting discussion topics. I can only think of one religious topic I started that had a good amount of discussion involved and that was YEARS ago on Beehive when I was a relative newbie.
Well, damn. You were one of the people I was going to PM a volunteer request to if you didn't do it on your own.

As to thread-length, well, one of the things you come to realize is that some threads take off, some tank, and the same topic that tanked two months ago suddenly takes off when introduced again. Different time, different angle, new members with different knowledge-bases, hell, the weather for all I know, all have an effect.
And as for life interfering, mine did big-time and nobody ever accused me of abandoning my duties when I suddenly wasn't posting much and just coming here for distraction. Meat life comes first and we've all had times when we just couldn't concentrate on anything else.
Marilyn