And the crowd went silent...

In the last few days, I've had occasion to talk privately with a number of people who post on the message boards to which I belong. Oddly, the majority of them are people with whom I've had very little prior interaction. The theme that tied all of those conversations together was the sentiment that "we like to read your posts and 'miss' you when you're not around."

I guess that's flattering, but more than that, it puzzles me. A large majority of the time, I keep myself from posting more simply because the lack of responses and interaction makes me feel like I'm talking to the wall. It's been suggested to me before that people don't respond to me more because I somehow intimidate them. I don't understand that AT ALL, but it might also explain another phenomenon. I'll often get private messages of support for something I've said, but those sentiments are very infrequently repeated in public. Maybe it's because people don't want to be seen as supporting or agreeing with me. *shrug*

Hit it, Faron...