Every "random topic" that generally gets made ends up with the TC getting trolled by the usual crowd so I'm not too surprised there's a lack of them. You can't complain about the community not being active if the community is hostile. Generally that deters people from wanting to have a general conversation.
And besides the threads you mentioned, every other topic is the daily troll by SephG, Sess or MWC so I'm not exactly sure what you expect.
--
Still smilin'
:>