Really nice to see a conversation sparking up.

That's solid evidence of a community. Perhaps one of its most important aspects is that it makes people feel more comfortable about joining in.

Being able to chip in to an ongoing conversation provides a more attractive means of engaging socially than having to stick one's head above the parapet with a “is this coin dead?” opening conversational gambit.

I positively encourage people to make “me too” or even “+1” posts.

In this medium, they play the role of conversational markers such as nods, eye contact and affirmatory utterances such as "uh-huh" and "yeah, right" that indicate the participants are attending to and following the discourse.

Impoverished as they are by this medium of expression, these markers are nevertheless a vital part of any broad-scale discussion/convo/yakking.

A discussion that is covering the ground has one additional beneficial side-effect, it acts to keep my posts short and forces me to be more concise. If I spend too long constructing the argumentation for my contribution, the discussion will have moved on, rendering my effort less relevant.

See?

Cheers

Graham