Highs and lows. There are plenty of folks here who are still active, used to come visit me quite often. I haven't seen them in months. I don't take it personally.
When I take a break, it's usually when things are going good. I've walked away from 'success' a few times but only because I was tired and planned to take a break anyway. Another one is coming, eventually.
That talk of circle jerks should be directed at the actual circle jerks. It sucks when those with a mutual respect and no actual agreement on where votes go and when get thrown into that mix. I only vote for what I like and sometimes those folks like my stuff as well.
Plenty of new users. I've been watching my incoming votes a lot lately, checking in to blogs I haven't seen before. I'm following 700 now, yet some days my feed is quiet, but there's where I usually go to vote.