I spent a while away from the site to deal with various things, but on my return I notice the same few posters putting up various threads, and hundreds of lurkers, people who read those posts and benefit from the information provided, or get a laugh from them, but rarely or never contribute anything towards them.

So when I say it's sad, given how slow the forums can be some days, that's exactly what it is, S....A....D, SAD!  It reminds me of the old commuter trains we used to have here in SE Queensland [Aus], where each carriage had around 10 rows of 2 bench seat compartments and a door either side.  We used to call them cattle trains because of how people were so crowded in...and when all the bench seats were occupied another half dozen or so would cram into the small compartment and have to stand on what little floor space was left after the seated passengers had placed their feet and brief cases, etc. 

Anyway, to cut a long story a bit shorter, there were these hundreds and hundreds of daily commuters, many travelling in the same compartment next the same people every day five days a week, all hidden behind the Courier Mail, which back in the day was a full sized newspaper, and none ever spoke to each other, not ever... and when those trains, of which there were dozens, and therefore the scene was repeatedly repeated, reached the city, all those people dispersed to their respective jobs, and still not speaking to each other, for any feching reason, until the journey home.  The same scene was repeated on dozens and dozens of commuter trains carrying 1000's and 1000's of people, all of them with their heads stuck in the Telegraph, Brisbane's afternoon paper.

So, the purpose of this sad commuter story, which hasn't changed a great deal since the 1970's, apart from the diesel drawn cattle trains becoming electrically powered cattle trains carrying yet another generation of equally 'miserably inclined' people, is to draw its striking resemblance to the oft desolate forums here at WC, where a handful of people post and the majority has its head stuck in a feching newspaper. 

Okay, maybe not a newspaper, but there is no participation from these lurkers to validate their existence here, no contributions to say: "Hey, I like this place and benefit greatly from it, so here's something in return."  No, it's too much feching trouble.  Well for mine, if you can take the time to read a thread/post, then you've enough time to post something... something so that regular contributors can acknowledge you, as a person and not some 'page view statistic', has truly joined the WC family and is a part of the human race.

Since my return a couple of months ago I have tried to visit more threads to contribute and participate, with a bit of information, with a bit of humour... something to say I'm a member and I've been here, but don't leave it all up to me all you lurkers, get your heads out of whatever and  please join the rest of us.