How do you keep a small community from going quiet in month three?

Recurring threads with a fixed day. Ours is "What did you play this weekend?" every Monday. It sounds trivial but it gives quiet people a low-stakes reason to post.

Reply to every first post within a few hours, by a human, by name. New members who get a reply to their first post come back at roughly twice the rate in our numbers.

Stop posting announcements as the first thing people see. Pin one welcome topic and let the latest list be members.

Reply to every first post within a few hours, by a human, by name.

We're not doing this consistently. Going to set up a rota this week. Thank you all.

Also: invite the superfans to be moderators early. They already feel ownership; give them the tools.