Hello, Elle!
Not sure when my son will appear, he has jobs to do, so may be a while.
I have done some of the puzzle, and put it aside for later.
I suppose it is easier now, for folk to get help on the crossword section of AnswerBank.
No Captcha there, and they have a far bigger turnover of queries, anyway.
It has always been like this on the Forum.
A "churn" is the word, I think.
Folk who post regularly for quite a while then gradually disappear.
I can think of many regulars who have gone.
The one that always springs to mind is Pastille.
She was here every day and livened up the forum, but she moved on, eventually.