Agree the number of official lurkers might really surprise us.

I recently posted about an issue I was having with an airline plan in a Forum I seldom post in or visit. I was in the right and they were prety clearly in the wrong on it. But I was getting nowhere.

I got an email from a supervisor followed up by a phone call before I could reply to the email. Going to great lengths to solve the issue that day. Amazing, and most appreciated. But showed to me they read EVERY thread on FT re their airline.

Also with the increasing use of google, I guess 10,000s of hits to FT a day are from folks who just google for "upgrade" or "bonus miles" or "flights to Atlanta" or "Sheraton Reston review" or whatever. Simple phrases, that a FT thread will be first or early match for in many cases.