I'm not new, but my opinion is still valid.
I started lurking VGChartz in late 2009 when I Google searched the top PS3 games and a VGChartz popped up. I admired the site design and a few of the members, so I looked up some other threads. This was during the PS3 Slim release so there was a lot of things going on.
I eventually became fond of a few posters and followed their activity. I also saw some members that I didn't like and I followed them in order to see them proven wrong. Then, early 2010 came and there was still a lot going on. The PS3 Slim release, the Uncharted 2 release, the GoW3/Heavy Rain hype, I finally decided to join in Feb 2010 mainly to hype up GoW3.
My first month or so here was mainly just posts about God of War 3. I eventually grew to a more active & diverse until about May. That was when the site changed to 5.0 and I couldn't stand the design and left to N4G. However, when E3 2010 came, I had to come back. Microsoft had just released the 360 Slim and I had to come back to see the outcome (It was a huge success). I've stayed active on VGChartz ever since.