Unless they don't remember you. Then it's embarrassing. I've seen this happen a hundred times on various small fora -- the response is either ten other absent community members come out of the woodwork to welcome the user back and exchange catch-me-ups ... or no one comments at all. Both are sort of stupid in my jaded, 'hard to make true friendships on the internet' view.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!"
Yeah, as far as I'm concerned fuffle set the precedence for a return announcement. I've never really experienced this in an online setting before, but it's certainly happened a lot in real life as friends leave and return to various scenes for various reasons. I see it as another instance of the blurring between IRL and online.