I feel guilty about being gobby - but ...

Everyone that wakes up in the morning and goes to bed at night (and vice versa) has got a life. I remember the net when it consisted mainly of text files. It has to be better than watching television. An individual may post on one board and lurk a couple of others - it comes down to confidence, perhaps. Think of the Parisian cafes of seventy, eighty, years ago.

The site weblogs will show how many access the site every day, on average, and every month. The proportion of posters to loggers could be calculated from that. Many sites show the handles of who's logged in at any one time - some just show how many. What matters is the quality of the discussion, whether it is 'creative' or just gas (IMO).