Judging by somebody's joining date does not imply that they were active at that point.
Exactly.
One would look at my joining date and high-ish ID and think, 'Oh, he's been here for about a year'.
But, I used to play V0002 and RTB 1.045 then stopped playing until I bought Retail, and signed up for the forums.
I wish I had known retail was out sooner.