How long after the purchase of your first LDW game was it before you registered and became a member of the forum community?

With in the first week.

I actually joined before I'd bought a game... but I'd been playing the online version of VV1 for a while, and I'd written about it somewhat. I found these forums, discovered that others were writing about their tribes, and then joined so I could comment! And, of course, share my writing.
Not long after I joined, I bought VV2. (And then PT when it came out!)

Hmm, well, this was a while ago for me, but I'm pretty sure it was the first week or month, but I'll put month to be safe.

I think it was somewhere between the 1st and 2nd year; I didn't know about these forums until recently...

I can't remember exactly so I put within six months

About two weeks, so I put within the first month.

These forums didn't exist when I bought my first LDW game!

You were expected to pay for it, Barbara?

After losing my first couple of VV1 tribes to starvation I realised I needed some help so I used Google to find these forums. It was probably over a week after buying, but less than a month.

I have bought LDW games, yes. I bought Plant Tycoon for PPC before I started testing/working for LDW. And I bought the boxed retail versions of all the desktop games as souvenirs (and to do a little testing on them, of course)!