in some respects this is a follow on from a discussion that we had last week. you are correct in your observations. this seems to be a site wide symptom and i think that the faves list contributes to this. in the past i rarely commented on images but over the past year i've done a lot more commenting. this, i feel has brought others to my gallery and subsequently they've left comments on my images.while i appreciate everyones comments, i'm not sure of the "i'll comment on yours because you've commented on mine" mindset, as i've fallen into that trap on a few occasions. if i find more than a few images i like i begin to backtrack through the gallery. as tom above has mentioned, time is an issue as well. i used to look at all the works in the galleries but recently, due to lack of time, started relying on mishas' weekly links to see what's happening in the photography gallery. hopefully over time we can balance things out :)

Pictures appear to me, I shoot them.   Elliot Erwitt