I joined the Downs as late as 2008 and remember three lively years brimming with discussions, riddles and games, RPGs and, last not least, Werewolf (never underestimate the bonding experience of killing each other a dozen times over!) We even had a weekly newspaper, The Downer, with its outrageously funny comic strip, the Phantom & Alien. (Sadly, the old issues of The Downer seem to have been used to wrap fish in and are now illegible, but P&A is still archived
here.)
I dropped out for the first time in 2012, absorbed in other stuff, and slunk back three years later, after what then seemed an eternity, just in time for the Welcome Back Party celebrating the forum's resurrection after The Great Barrow Downs Blackout of 2015 (q.v.). I think the Age of the Trees began even back then. Many formerly active members who were in school or university during the heydays of the Downs were now busy finishing their studies, with their jobs or starting a family (there are several RL Downer couples who first met here, and by now even a few Barrow Downs babies!), or just, dare I say it?, pursuing other interests beside Tolkien's works. But folks still keep in contact via social media (there's a Barrow Downs group on Facebook), and once in a while a Downs anniversary or an exceptional situation like the Pandemic in 2020 will bring us back here.
For me, the Downs were the first online community I was active in, being a digital immigrant from the age of wired phones and b/w TV, and for those first three years mentioned above Downsing accounted for between 50 and 75 % of my internet activity. I guess I just burned out. My enthusiasm for discussing the minutiae of Middle-earth has waned like the dwindling glory of the Elves, although I still love Tolkien's work and the Downs will always be a cherished part of my life.
(Btw, a belated but hearty welcome,
Alasse! It's good to see a fresh spirit breathe some new life, or, well unlife into these quiet crypts.)