The word is out about Rob's knives. Look at the cover of Blade October 2002. Rob and his products are very well known among the very tight circle of people who appreciate a quality knife.
There are many factors that make some forums more active than others. One is the fact that many makers like to hold back some informatin about the manufacuring process that contributes to their finished product. Rob is not one of these makers. He puts everything on the line upfront. Everyone who buys one of his products knows exactly what they are getting and how it was made. This is a great thing, but it does keep dozens of curious people from asking questions and trying to hang around his forum and "learn" a secret.
I have many friends in this industry. Rob is one of several very good, honest men that I have the pleasure of interacting with. There are others that are just a honest that do have considerable more traffic on their fourms for various reasons. One of those being that Rob is relatively new to this higher production method of producing knives. Therefore he doesn't have all that many models on the market yet. More models will also mean more traffic in the future.
In some cases, lots of traffic on a forum is due to tons of horse manure that has to be waded through to learn anything. There is a forum or two that seems to be dedicated to misinformation.
Bottom line is, never judge a product by the amount of traffic on the maker's forum.
Dennis
