[Mz]

I recently gathered a few links, mostly to previous discussions on the topic, in a post here that you might find helpful:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2126209

I actually have a track record of promoting conversation traction in online forums. But I don't know how those principles would be applied to the kind of site you are asking about. I am interested in getting a better understanding of such things in part because while I seem perfectly capable of increasing traffic (and thus membership) on someone else's discussion board where there is already a certain number of members (but discussion is anemic), my own email lists and websites lack traffic (and members). :-/