Biggest advice I can give is, "Read the room..." or, in this case, the "sub-forum." Then, you'll get a good idea of how things work, what flies in there and what doesn't, the various topics people discuss, and how to respond to them. And then, go ahead and respond to them! You might even get comfortable starting one or two, eventually! It helped me a lot when I first started here. Just "read the room."
You'll probably find that many things are just every day "community/forum fellowship" like items in which we all participate that just aren't "doberman" related, like the "
What's your weather today" thread, or the "
Hilarious Dog Memes" thread, or the "
Do you remember" thread (where we discus things, items. points of nostalgia etc. from the past). I recall there was a "
Keep a word... give a word" game but I don't think it's played that much anymore. Although, I will say that one "off topic" topic we do discuss with some reasonable frequency (and more than I thought would ever be discussed on a doberman forum) is the "2nd Amendment." I guess that's because many if not most of us here (myself included) are "pro 2A" to various extents, so we do talk about those sorts of things. If you're at all pro-2A, you're in good company here. You are, anyway, but....
Enjoy!