)You may or may not have noticed, but--on the scale of the board in general--something of a mass exodus of artists and dissectors has occurred during the past year or so. Well, at least those who miss marineguy, hue of bone, Blackhawk, etc. may have. As an active contributor, and equally unhappy with the sluggishness or near death-throes of the more creative forums, namely dissections, the gallery, and the hall of gifts, I can easily perceive the lack of response as the major reason to this. We don't exactly post new threads for the sheer fun of having them merely gather dust, particularly as there may be tens of hours of work from collecting reference materials from the library to 3D-rendering behind a single piece. If a person has problems understanding the issue here, then one might try to review it from a different angle: think about typing a very long, analytical thread with questions and speculations and a serious invitation to discuss the matters within, and gain virtually no response during the following weeks and months. Now, have this occur again and again, and you can grasp the level of frustration. The medium may be different, but for one thing, there's no magical button in Photoshop that produces full-colored images within seconds.
If you'd like to keep the remaining contributors here, prevent the slow dying-out of the forum--the issue of which has cropped up a few times lately--and encourage some future newbies to add their own works to the heap, then please consider not to skip over such posts. I know for a fact that a lot of lurking happens, and yet silence prevails. It should not be very difficult to write a line or two for a response, particularly compared to the volume of traffic some other areas like the Tank here receive. Contributors aren't after mindless praise, they're after discussion, just like regular thread-starters.
Thank you.
(Not that I'm expecting much of a response to this either--but perhaps someone reads and takes a second to consider the import.)
Actually, I already have an idea 
It drives me crazy to read a book as slowly as a read-along requires. I get into the story and end up finishing the book.