Joel is on here. Still pops up, occasionally (that I've noticed).
Many presences have seemingly declined, in the last few years. Interests and competing demands change for everyone; there's also some ongoing speculation that as HN has grown and, for lack of a better term, the signal/noise ratio has declined, those more interested in a focused and concentrated "signal" have lost interest, or patience with the noise.
Also, any individual's participation, even if held at a steady level, is likely to decline in prominence at least somewhat amidst the vastly increased HN traffic.
I can't speak for Joel on this (I don't know him, even remotely). But since the grandparent was speaking about presences more generally.
