I'm a relatively new member but as my fiancé will tell you, I'm addicted. I've actually caught her several times recently taking a look herself.
As with all forums, they are gathering lots of different people. Astronomy brings us all together. To be fair, many people with this shared interest may have different personalities that we wouldn't necessarily chose to hang out with. Every now and again this may cause some small feuds, but as a whole the variety of knowledge, experience and depth of discussion that is on this site I think is great
The trade section is fantastic and gives newbies not only a chance to purchase equipment at a fair price, but also is being sold by somebody that has experiment using the equipment. Much better than any shop can offer.
Keep it up IIS