Hello, gayleggg!
So, if you are good at small talk you can teach me. Can it be learnt?
Any tips? Talking about hobbies, perhaps?

Edit: there are many threads and sometimes people can't reply all or don't know what to say.
There is also the posibility that they already saw a good reply and they don't have much to add ( that happens to me a lot). So, it's fine. No problem.
I think that if a person is very interesting in an answer all (s)he has to do is repeat the thread in different subforums or repeat it in the same subforum.

I'm excellent at small talk actually - but I never initiate.

I've had some rather entertaining conversations about the weather, but that's probably because of where I live!

I find it polite, and I feel like I stand out less if I learn to behave in more confident ways even if I don't feel any confidence. I have various topics which I can engage in conversation about easily - travel, stories about my students, etc.

If it's a conversation with a stranger it is usually related to whatever is going on that's having us in the same place long enough to have a conversation.