I came back after about 5 years playing Everquest. A lot has changed, LoD was not yet released when I first quit.
I remember when I first started Everquest I received a massive shock at just how much better and more polite the community was, there were still jerks, but not nearly as many. I guess having to pay by the month weeds out a lot of the kiddies. When I dusted off D2 and started playing again I got another equally rude shock as I had forgotten just how bad the general Bnet population is (present company excluded of course).
But anyway, definitely come back and give it another crack, theres still plenty of ppl playing, the community here on dii.net is pretty good, just watch out for the general bnet population, nothing has changed there. I am actually considering moving to Europe realm and starting over as I am quite confident that the general bnet population is much better. If your connection is up to it and you have nothing to tie you to a particular realm you might want to consider it. I also hear the economy is much more sensible there.
Edited a typo