What is the impact of a small portion of jellies posting regularly?

Supposedly there are thousands of jellies. But, based on an unscientific individual survey, it seems to me that less that 300 post regularly, and perhaps even fewer comprise the the group of people who are significantly more active than most other jellies.

As a result, this generally feels like an ongoing conversation between the same old people. Occasionally someone new will drop in a comment, but they rarely make the commitment to participate the way some of the old jellies do.

I would like to know what you think the impact of this participation pattern is. How does it affect the use of the many lurkers? Are we like some kind of soap opera for them? Do they come to enjoy our various voices? Does it make the place somewhat intimidating for new people to participate in? Is there a steep learning curve where if people don’t figure it out fast enough, they start getting the cold shoulder?