You joined in July 2003, but at the beginning of 2003, Zelaron was down for about a month or so (I think a little longer though). After that happened, about 1/2 the active member base gave up hope on Zelaron and never came back, or at least didn't come back for many months, which means that about 2 months of consistent activity was lost for most members that stuck around. It was a very tough transition period to get things back to normal.

If that never happened, I would easily have over 10k by now.