I have tried to jumpstart a few communities by posting and commenting regularly . I would try a new one, but if people do not find or join, it will get caught in the same cycle as the existing groups. I like participating, but am not interested in being the single driving force, or moderating.
To answer your other question, I cannot stand when I see auto mirrored content from Reddit. I usually ignore those posts, as I have rarely seen comments happening. When the content wasn’t created by somebody here, I don’t think anybody is invested in maintaining or participating in the discussion.