I shall throw in my 2 cents here as well.
As someone who has been around these parts for a VERY long time, SS isn't a game I play very often anymore, but most nights before I go to bed I click on its bookmark on my web browser, and take a look around. sometimes I may go a few days, even weeks or months between these checks, but the fact of the matter is, even though i've been here for 3+ years it's less about the game now, it's more about the community, the idea behind it all. Don't get me wrong here the game is the underlying background, the spine of the whole ordeal, but after seeing what the modders did with the game as it is already there is no doubt in my mind, that when this game does come out it will be fantastic. I choose the word fantastic because quite frankly even my considerable vocabulary doesn't possess a word adequate enough to describe the game or better, the idea of the game. When I check in I don't stay too long, I make a few posts, read the latest news and then go about my life. Because of the way I treat the forums i've never had an ill time here, nor have I ever experienced the feeling that alex is too slow, or that the community is dieing, in fact every once in awhile when I see people complain that the forum is dieing I hop over to the modding section and see nearly constant posts, new mods appearing, old modders helping out the newbies, it's amazing how an area so filled with life is just ignored when speaking of the forum as a whole. True my method isn't the most interesting way, and most of you will probably ignore me because you don't agree with the way I see it. But you have to understand there are many games out there on this little blue marble, and while you're away with them Alex won't mind, he knows how it goes, especially since he knows that when he does release an update, a blog post, or the game itself we'll all come back to him.
Over the years i've met new people here, seen old friends leave the community, seen new people rise to fame in the community, and then seen them vanish into thin air, I've seen people get banned who I had once held conversations with, never to return. And more than anything else i've seen people show up out of the blue ranting, raving, complaining about why the game never updates, why the game sucks, or how to improve the game as a thin veil for just being a right ass. ( not saying this is the OP) Let me tell you something i've observed over my time here, these people, always disappear within a month, and never return. This game does not need them, this community does not want them, and we have no mercy.
The important thing to take note of here, is that it will happen, Alex is still here, he is still working, David is still working, and making them take time out of their day to tell people they are still here is just slowing them down even more.