He made the transition and posted. People were asking him to get his motion-sensor camera up and running and he couldn't figure it out. Also he mentioned that his wife was ill. Is it ever possible for the mods to reach out and check on someone?
I communicated privately with Brig while he was attempting to deal with whatever his tech issues may have been. As I recall he basically reached a point of giving up, or at least deferring further action owing to other ("real life") concerns.
Here's how I see it ...
We staffers have only limited clues on how to independently contact members (by means other than PMs here within the forum). We don't necessarily or always have the ability to directly contact any given member.
There's also the more or less ethical / legal aspect - i.e., at what point or juncture does it become inappropriate for us to personally prompt or pursue communications with members.
In effect, we invite people to have a presence here on the forum, and we are available to aid them in the time they spend here. However, we're not presumptively privileged, much less obligated, to proactively prompt members to visit / interact..
Lurkers are welcome. There's no magic means for telling whether a silent member is lurking versus being muted by circumstances.
Choices concerning things above and beyond "being here in real time" (e.g., notifications via email) are left up to the individual member. We presume each member is capable of establishing his / her own boundaries, and we presume it's our place to respect whatever boundaries are in effect.
We leave the door open, but we don't bug you to come inside.