I haven't been here nearly as long as most of the people in this thread, so take the following with a grain of salt.
Pretty much everyone has noticed a decline in activity. Lasers pointers are a thing of yesteryear. The few of us here are just the last holdouts of a hobby that died in 2013-2014.
People will always want a "burning laser" as soon as they discover they exist, so we do still have a small influx of new members and likely always will. It's still a stagnant hobby though, and the very few of the new members we do get are unlikely to stick with it for very long. Everyone here knows this, regardless of whether or not they consciously came to that conclusion.
Are you into UAVs? You can build an airframe, rewire your motors, 3D print components, spy on your neighbors, program your own software, etc. Are you into model rockets? You can build a new engine, try out a new fuel mix, go out to the desert and watch people who are better at model rocketry than you explode several thousand dollars worth of model rocketry equipment, etc. Are you into laser pointers? Well then you can either go get a degree in physics, or you can buy lasers online. After a while, you might even try assembling some yourself, but you still won't actually be building a laser. If you're already a machinist you could even make some metal tubes to put the components in. How exciting.
My point is, after the initial "wow" wears off, there's not much to explore after you've popped a few balloons and lit a few matches. This is a great community, and I'm sorry for being so pessimistic, but there is nothing left on the horizon.
