Discussions

This topic half came up in another discussion and is something I thought would be interesting to hear.  
 
A lot of people read the discussion forums to see what is going on and what people have to say about it, but choose to not get involved in discussions and are comfortable letting the rest of us do the talking.  
 
My question is simple... if in fact you were someone who watched the site for a few weeks or months before getting involved with posting, what made you make the jump?