I think some people have limited time to participate in every PT section and gravitate towards the places they feel the most welcome.

For example, I don't spend much time in the 'pet' section as much as I love rabbits, guinea pigs, horses, rats and all the other great animals there. Just because I'm not there doesn't mean I don't feel welcome. It just means I don't get there often.

Maybe some people avoid the this forum, 'other - general', because of all the seemingly innocent threads that turn into personal attacks, and maybe because they are pet people and don't have the time or interest to hang out here and chew the fat on other subjects.

Sometimes it's totally innocent: Catmandu got a lot of replies to his birthday thread in the cat forum but not in this forum. Why? Because he's well known on the cat side and those of us who know him know that he isn't able to spend long at the computer and come to the general side very often. While it might look a bit clannish to the casual observer, I thought it was a sweet gesture to make sure he saw the good wishes on his birthday.

You can always click 'view most recent threads' or whatever it's called to see what's happening on all the forums. I think it's great that Karen and Paul are relaxed in their moderator duties and allow things to develop organically in the forums. It encourages me to check as many forums as I can, when I can, in case I miss something.