It's a small, user-centric community. This sort of response is typical of small, user-centric communities. I've been part of a film-related one for ten years now. People wander away and then wander back with a 'here's what I've been up to!' and everyone says "yay!" Unless they don't remember you. Then it's embarrassing. As far as I'm concerned, it's the key advantage of small communities: individuals matter. I've got, at last count, 38 posts to /r/bestof that call me out by name (which doesn't include the stuff that's been deleted) and a trophy case that says "load more trophies" but if you hear my name mentioned on Reddit, it's using the same tone of voice you would use to discuss The Great Old Ones. I mean, I moderate 3.6 million people. "Hey, bob is back!" is pretty meaningless when you're talking about a community the size of Chicago.