Especially when you're trying to increase the activity on your forum, it's frustrating to see members sign up but then never make a single post. I'm an admin at a theology forum, a topic that most people find intimidating enough. At our forum, both atheists and believers are encouraged to post, which makes that first post even more difficult.
To ease the pain of that first post, we welcome each new member with a pm. We assure them that if they start a thread in the intro board, then they're sure to receive a warm welcome, and they always do.
We even have a sticky in the intro board with an IGI Yearbook, so that new members can instantly put a name with a face. Our goal is for believers of all kinds, as well as non-believers, to come together and get to know each other not just as Catholics, Quakers, Jews, and Muslims, but as people. If you're having trouble getting new members to post, try our approach. It doesn't work every time, but it works a lot.
Check out our intro board and Yearbook page.
http://isgodimaginary.com/forum/index.php/topic,39528.0.html
I hope that helps. Happy forum'ing!
One of the things that work for our forum is welcoming message that gets sent to a new members encouraging them to participate in discussions, contests.
I checked it out. Nice forum, Alex. : )