Trying to 'guide' and encourage posts is a full-time job. We all know the feeling of posting a question or comment, coming back several days later - and there's no response at all! That's the quickest way to kill group interest there is.

So when you're revitalizing a group, the group leaders need to really concentrate on nurturing discussion until others catch on that their comments or questions are being responded to, and then - rather like building a fire! - the tinder catches. But even then the group leaders (and there should be several, ideally) need to keep an eye on encouraging discussion, seeing what areas people want to talk about, etc. All this means, if they also have to monitor group participation or make a lot of changes in group status, it's a bit much.

However, Kallistos Alexandros had a rather neat rule. He'd watch and, whenever a given poster made, say, five posts on a given subject, he'd bump 'em up a notch. He did that to me, which was fun and actually got me more interested in helping promote discussion myself!