Some observations about our art form:
1) Remember the majority of our forum membership are hobbyists; which means a totally different level of commitment: time, money and passion-wise.
2) Learning a sleight, it's like sport or any skill. It can take 100s to 1000s of repetitions to execute a sleight at a meagerly performable level (at least for us ungifted people). This can get very boring and uninteresting.
Working at a Fitness Center, I see this all the time where people execute their workout just so they can check it off their "TO DO" list. The people that are most engaged are those with a special event or a deadline they're working towards. OR they are people that just got a new resource like a new magazine, book or fitness video / program. Even then the excitement lasts for about a month, after which there seems to be a mental threshold where many people tend to fall off the wagon.
POINT: Maybe there's nothing meaty for us to chat about because we're unengaged with our magic. So we come to the forums to get re-sparked and hyped about something. When it's not there -- ***** about it.
Moreover, when I'm engaged in my magic, connecting and centering myself with all that got me into magic in the first place, I'm Excited! I'm looking for opportunities to perform! I'm searching out people who are better than I am to get tips! I'm reading new books and working on patter.
Because I'm engaged I'll: 1) post more expressing my passion / opinions; I'll jump into other threads; I'll ask serious questions, looking for serious answers; when I browse the lists of recent topics, I don't even give asinine, worthless topics a glance and USE THE SEARCH function much more often, not caring how old the topic is.
Or 2) I'll be so busy with a new trick or sleight, I won't even come onto the forums. I.e. passionate people might not have time to post here because they're so consumed with magic, or performing, or working on their chops, or routining, or coming up with something more origional.
POINT 2: Are we looking for something unrealistic -- a constant flow of engaging conversation sourcing, as a community, from unengaged people? Or worse, are we looking for motivation from the Outside rather than generating motivation from the Self. Self motivation is much more powerful and long lasting than someone else motivating me.
Just my 2 kanucks.