It's a good thing. We do not cause any trouble. We aren't hitting the abuse button. We are congenial. We will be left alone. Really. No reason to jump ship and go where many won't find us. Personally my typing is too slow for chat rooms.
As to the troll question ... it is possibly curiousity. Wondering what we are discussing to keep it going. Once they come to check it out ... it is either add a bit of revelent commment or be tacky ... depending on the personality of the troll. Nothing person to us or Tolkein.
The lurkers and there are many. Just like on Free Republic, many lurk for a year or two before a first posting. The quiet majority ... enriched by the more erudite and sapient among us. Keep it up, please. My musings for what it's worth.
We are playing with the egroup place, and it is working for sharing files and resources very well in addition to the chat room when we just want to gab. The file and photo storage has been the biggest benefit so far. But all of us still spend most of our time here.
I am pushing the idea of setting up a new Hobbit Hole thread over in the GI area, so that as time goes on this thread does not come to be viewed as a nuisance (up to now we have simply been a curiousity). In appreciation of the hospitality FR has shown us by allowing us to be here, and in the spirit of the new posting guidelines, we should move our chit-chat over to the other side, and hope that it will continue to be a fun thread for all inhabitants. We are not going away, only adapting!