All those signature campaigns, giveaways, airdrops some sort of "free money", attract more and more people who have come here to "work hard" and make as more as possible.
this! this is the main reason for newcomers to join forum in the last few years
(since ~2016 I think)in the very early time, people see the big opportunity for free money from claiming airdrops
then later on doing sig camps and bounties are more lucrative than working in certain countries
they leave their day jobs
(or simple was unemployed) and concentrate on "working" in this forum
the surge of the newcomers probably happened when the price suddenly spike high in 2016-2017