Hello and welcome!
I would count it as semi-active to active. There are a bunch of highly dedicated players, as well as newbis and returning older players constantly joining.
If you know what GaiaOnline, this website was created a few years after that. Think it is in it's 12 years now. Don't quote me on that. It has teetered off, but the Admin and Creators all still work hard to produce monthly content and new items, so I won't really count is as Semi-Active. The Summer event should be soon!
I haven't joined the RP forums, but they do actively post. I'm sure you can find a player or two to join you.
I myself run a shops thread, as well as a hangout thread. I don't post nearly as often as others. Fun fact, there is a monthly contest for most posts in non-spam forums. think the top 5 range from 300 posts to 100 posts in a month. So 5 to 10 new posts generated a day from those top posters.
From what I understand, Charity is live and popping. I'm actually surprised the normal welcoming bandwagon with their links to cool info or active charities haven't posted here. You'll meet them soon. Nice people. I'm a dragon, I hoard and sleep on my pile. Still, if you ever see an item you really like, I may listen. I promise to not breathe fire on you at least.
There are multiple forms of currency- Food Points (FP)

is the most common currency. You get those through Knuffels, posting, and usually what you use to buy items from the shops.
The second common currency is Fairy Coins (FC)

They are your microtransaction, and are a donation. If you use $ it is roughly 2.50 per coin, and you get monthly items if you donate enough ( 5

, 10

, 15

and 20

) but you can usually buy them in market or in the buy sell trade forums. I try to offer a set price, if you ever have the FP for trade. Or post in the thread, I give one out monthly, randomly drawn from anyone who posted in my shop.
Third is Troth Tokens (This one is NOT commonly abbreviated as TT as a shop, Treasure Trove, sells rare items for

so most users advertise trading Treasure Trove items as TT items)

You get these daily, for free, just by logging in. The more you regularly log in, the number you get daily jumps up to like 10 I think is the max. Below the

is a hyperlink better explaining it, but you can buy monthly items
to hoard away for a later date that change regularly, and only way to get them is through Marketplace or trading Tokens. I don't know the current conversion rate.
The last is the rarest of the currency, the Frosted Donut. You can find in the Hangout Forums open discussion, but once a month for 2 days, a NPC rolls through with rare items
HOARD that you can trade donuts for. The background of the game will change during this time, and the banner on the right will have a new selection. Posts will give you 1 to like.. 3? donuts during those 2 days, and leading up to it, you may find a random donut.
I myself left this website for a number of years, I just returned. I am a goofball, so don't mind me too much, but happy to answer any questions.
I hope you have fun here.