There are some threads I introduce which contain many historic or technical facts, but which gather no responses, and I think I know why: I provide too much information, so the readers have no need to ask anything! Hal
I don't know which threads you are referring to but are you sure that that's the main reason? I'm not. There may be many reasons, some above and some below the surface. First and foremost, people need to take an interest in the topic, be capable of understanding the message and need to have sufficient knowledge of their own before they can give any input. They then need a reason for responding, for which they, again, need to understand why a thread has been introduced, what the objective, the intention of the writer might be. A sufficient reason for writing may be questions posed by the OP or a one-sided view or a kind of provocative rendering of facts and events which would run counter to a reader's beliefs and knowledge. As I understand it, though, it's chiefly not the readers who are expected to ask questions but it's the OPs who need to state in their opening posts what they are interested in, what they want to discuss. So, IOW, if there's a smooth, matter-of-fact, and undistorted account of something and no questions asked, what should readers then comment on?
In some cases, I suppose that could be the case. More often, I believe, the opposite is true. Someone will post a link or a video, or make a comment, without enough information to let anyone know what it means to them or why they should take an interest. Mostly though, I think @Thomas Stearn has it right in his post. I often come across threads about subjects that I know nothing about. While I appreciate the thread being there, and hope that there will be someone else here who can contribute to it, I don't have anything to add. For example, I don't know anything about telescopes. I'm not sure that I even remember how to focus my binoculars. But that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy seeing the pictures of the amazing equipment that you have owned; only that I couldn't add anything to your thread other than my own ignorance of the topic.
I admit that just seeing a long thread to read initially makes me want to skip it but I'm too curious to let that happen. I may not respond but I like finding out about what others' interests are.
I am sure we went over the same subject a couple of times before and I am doubly sure that @Hal Pollner posted one of those enquiries only about 2 or 3 months ago. @Thomas Stearn did indeed hit the nail on the head but I do have one additional thought and it’s the same one I wrote before. Interestingly enough, in answer to Hal. When I start a thread, it’s nice when folks reply and have something interesting to add especially if I have proposed a question within the OP but it really isn’t the most important thing to me. When I look at the number of “Views” as opposed to the “Replies” and see that the number of people who found the thread and read it outweigh the number of people who replied by 10 fold or more, I’m happy. We only have so many members here and yeah, quite a few onlookers but when I see 500 views or even 1000 or more, I know that some search engine(s) is picking up on something I wrote and someone from somewhere is probably reading whatever it is I wrote. The added plus is that a view from someone who isn’t a member might perchance be interested enough to sign up. Example: My thread, “leave well enough alone” only has 34 replies but has 1,179 views and some of those might be due to the telescopes entered into the conversation. Granted, he and I were off topic but I am sure that the search engines still picked up on it.
I'm like @Ken Anderson . I read but many times I don't know enough about the subject to offer anything to the thread. It's better to say nothing, then. I will "Like" the post if I liked it. Hey, @Ken Anderson , I do know how to focus my binoculars! I'll help you with that if you want me to.
I did when I was a Boy Scout, and bought a pretty nice pair a few years ago but I seldom remember to bring it with me when I go anywhere where I might use it. The same is true of my best camera. While I hate the iPhone camera, that's usually what I have with me.
Just providing information does not make a thread either interesting or not interesting, @Hal Pollner. As Ken said, when someone starts a thread, it is very important that the title explains what the thread is actually about, and then the first post should usually have a short explanation of the topic, as well as the writer’s opinion about that topic. Just copying information about something does not make an interesting post because we can all go to someplace like Wikipedia, and read the same information. A true conversation needs more than facts, it needs an exchange of ideas; so if one’s own thoughts are not added into the opening post, often times, there is really nothing to respond to, and people will just read the post and not write anything. Also, as @Bobby Cole pointed out, even threads that do not get many responses can be read by a huge amount of people, so that factor is just as important as the number of actual responses to the thread. There is one thread on this forum, that I started some time back, that has only garnered 15 responses; but it has been read an astounding 25,000 times (almost 26,000) . So, people are looking at it, even when they do not write anything.
That would probably be this one. For some reason, it is one of our most popular pages, via search results, as it ranks high on several search terms that people search for.