Yes, what Caravel says is true for teh MainHall as well as for other TW subfora. Basically there are waves of fans coming in them. Most of them as they come in know little about the game, and their questions liven up discussion as they drag in the more seniors that know but find little reason to post anymore what they know.

If there is someone(s) answering at the right time, other new and old members that lurk join the discussion and a small community again forms. Over time outsiders read their discussions, AARs etc and they aso get into it, because once you see/read about the game you want to play too - its contagious.

The critical bit is to have a member that can start answering in the first place at all times if possible. Hence why i said that its important to quickly promote demote ass.mods and mods in order to have active leaders present in subfora at all times. Its not that proactively they can create content but that they help reverberate and eventually snowball discussion by attracting new members due to their being able to answer about teh game.