MWM,
No, I didn't take your post the wrong way. I know you weren't trying to make anyone feel guilty and were just trying to pose the question. I think we all just started thinking and were just elaborating.
I don't really think there is any answer to your question.
Some say it's more familiarity with the person or the subject matter, but Mikey is a prime example of that not being true. He was new, so no familiarity with his name, and the subject matter is really nothing new to any of us that have dealt with substance abuse (and before any of you take it the wrong way - I'm only using Mikey as an example - not saying there's anything wrong with it, but just making a point that it's not familiarity with a name that makes people respond). It does seem that because he's a man on a board whose members are predominantly women, he gets a lot of responses, and has from his very first post. People who I've never even seen on Teens before, and have never posted to anyone else on Teens, have posted responses to him. I can't explain it, but it happened.
(Mikey, I hope you don't mind that I used you as an example. It is not meant to be a negative comment at all. I'm just using it as an example of posts.)
That was an example of someone gettng a lot of unexplained responses. Unfortunately, there are many examples of people getting very few responses on the flip side. Sometimes a person will post, and only a few respond. Heck, I'm a moderator and have been on this board for many years, and I don't always get many responses when I start a post.
It's just one of those things that can't be explained. We can question or talk about it at length, but as long as I've been on this board, it's always been that way. Some get many responses and some don't. It just happens.
The best suggestion I can make is what I did above - to try and do the best we can and to reach out when we can.
Deb