You seem so sure about that; I am not.  Lauda seemed to have so much personally invested in this forum that I find it hard to believe he won't return, even if it's with an alt account. 

And yeah, I could be completely wrong.  Perhaps Lauda knew when to give up and that the community (including quite a few DT members) had turned against him, and that it was a pointless battle to fight.  But man, when Lauda used to take long breaks from the forum, it would get very boring--kind of like TMAN and his absences.  Wonder where he went off to?