HunchBluntley: I would say any activity in this forum is good activity, even if it involves reviving long-dormant threads. :D
As to the "Where did the time go?" issue, there's actually an option in the main, uh, options menu that allows you to turn on a little clock that appears near the bottom of the screen on the right-hand side. I find it very helpful. =)

I would guess that skill set comes from the Demon Hunter class introduced in the "Demon War" expansion, which seems to have been released in early '11.