Not only persons for whom English is a second language feel intimidated. I agree with Dr. Bill. I suspect many of those who register consider themselves "word people," but they quickly discover here that there are word people and then there are WORD PEOPLE. It's one thing to enjoy reading and to have an affinity for words, quite another to have the depth of knowledge about language that many AWADers exhibit daily. THAT can be intimidating!
I do think, however that all of the reasons discussed in this thead are probably contributing factors in the explanation of why more people don't participate. As for why there aren't more actually registered, if you explore the site but don't plan to post (for any of the reasons discussed here), there's really no need to register. You're already getting everything you want just by observing and soaking up the knowledge so generously shared here.
