I think I've come full circle, and thought I'd share, for the sake of demographics or posterity or whatever.
My friend John recommended this science fiction podcast he'd been listening to, so I went and checked it out. There were some cool stories on there, and they were soliciting stories from any writer who cared to submit, which sounded cool, even if I don't exactly write much science fiction myself. But they were having this short-short flash fiction contest, so what the heck!
I entered my three stories, and monitored their progress as closely as my patient bride would tolerate, and had a great time all that summer long. I didn't "win", but hadn't expected to, and I was pleased just to see real feedback from real readers (because even the most honest friend just can't be objective).
But the year wound on, and things got busy. I tried to do a collaborative story with a fellow EP'er, but found that demands of family and work were keeping me from really contributing much. School began, and I found I wasn't contributing much to the forum, either. I kept quarreling with people - which felt wrong, because I mostly agreed with their opinions - and couldn't find time for sitting down and listening to the stories each week...
So I drifted away, until Russell PM'd me and reminded me how much fun I'd had in the early days. And I finally convinced myself that it was okay to bogart my daughter's iPod (since she had "lost" the charge cord for six months and hadn't bothered to tell us... and it was on my desk in plain sight the whole time!), which meant that I could listen on my commute without being interrupted a thousand times by little voices!
And now I'm back to being a "regular"; tentatively giving my own feedback, and telling everyone I know, "Hey, you might like this podcast I've been listening to..."