And then there's people like me who turn up when everyone else has left the conversation and moved on to other topics - like now for example.

But whilst I'm here I'll just add FWIW that I experience similar dynamics when with my parents. Talking to my mother she will often betray that she hasn't been listening to a word I've been saying, either by cutting across me mid-sentence to ask a question on a completely unrelated issue or simply getting up and doing something else!!

My father is the complete opposite, he will listen attentively (although will go off on a tangent to whatever it is I wanted to discuss) but when he is speaking will trail off mumbling or just finish his sentence while heading upstairs or into another room, so that I have no chance of hearing the completion of what he was saying.

I suppose in that sense my parents complement each other quite well.

As for me, at home, either because I know what's coming or because I've regressed to my childhood self, I'm now extremely disinclined to start a conversation at all. At a party my experiences are similar to yours, to the point where I often don't even try to influence the direction of the conversation, it's easier to just go with the flow.

Is it bad LJ etiquette to leave a comment long after a thread has gone 'cold'?