Some people actively participate but rarely if ever start a thread.

I had the same results as noromance.

waytoomuchstuff, "reverse engineering", right.

Well, some people are afraid to look silly by asking "stupid questions" or just initiating "stupid subject". I am not, and if some of what I start is indeed stupid, so be it. As someone said: " If there is nothing to lose there is nothing to gain "

I think a better question may be how to separate the wheat from the chaff? These days lots of folks like to just through out opinions that are not so well informed or don’t respond to questions as asked. My favorite is when a question is asked about a specific product lots of folks ask "have you tried’ this or that? I’ve also found that folks who give the best responses also tend to post pictures of their systems and list their equiptment.