Hi Hingol,
Yes the Forum is slow from time to time. It is nothing to worry about.
As we are global, a lot of members simply don't read or write English. Most people prefer to post photos.
Again seeing only a few regular posters is not unusual. Most chat forums and social media only have 5% to 10% of members actually contribute. The rest are "readers". Even the very large forums are comparatively slow. Some of the largest forums with 500 million members or more, usually have no more than a few hundred contributing members, which make them look very busy but on a percentage basis they are very slow.
For example. Whirlpool is probably the largest forum in Australia with almost 1 million members. On line right now is less than 900. With 5% to 10% post rate, they will be busy if they get 40 or 50 new posts today...out of 1,000,000 members.
On the other...chances are we have all gone fishing
Mark said he was going to contact you about the T-shirt. I thought he already had. Have you changed email address since joining, Mark will only have your joining email on file. He will probably send you a voucher by email. Just make sure you order one size larger than what you think. I found that one size up is a much better fit.
itsaboat mate...Life is just a boat and then ya marry one !