Wow. I have been thinking about this a lot and just can't see how we, and our community, could ever be quantified.

Back in 1998 I wasn't much of a traveler, but I had a whole bunch of miles and wanted to take my family on a trip to Spain, in style. I jumped on the internet and searched "frequent flyer miles". That led me to the information I wanted, but, moreover, it led me to the smartest, funniest, most joyful group of people I could imagine. Those people are what kept me coming back.

All of that intelligence, knowledge, generosity, humor, and happiness hooked me right from the start. That core group was the foundation of FlyerTalk as we know it today.

As the years went by we were joined by many other very smart, very knowledgable, very funny and generous people, who continued to to shape and build the totally amazing FlyerTalk core group that we enjoy today. I am not talking about the 158,894 users who jumped in, registered, posted a few times, got a quick bit of information and moved on, but instead the 1,000, 2,000 or 3,000 of us who have found/made a home on FlyerTalk. We are what make FlyerTalk so amazing.

I have this funny feeling that none of us can be measured. Most of us probably don't even land on the charts. We are wild, adventurous, slightly crazy, people who think way, way out of the box. We are among that tiny percentage of human beings on this planet who think that, "Hey, would you like to go to Singapore for the weekend?" is a totally reasonable question.

Sure we have our debates and disagreements--could you expect anything else with so many divas in one place. But, in the end, we have connected with one another and, in a strange way belong to one another, even when we disagree. We have experienced one another's lives--marriages, births, deaths, divorces, educations, promotions, failures, successes, totally crazy travel schemes, and even wars. We are probably among the most unique, creative, exciting, fluid, stubborn, inventive, creatures on earth.

The best thing on earth that we all have to offer FlyerTalk is the sharing of all of our individual and wonderful ideas, mixing them up, arguing them out, and coming out with even more fantastic final solutions as a team that any of us could ever arrive at on our own.

I just can't see how we, or our brilliant ideas or joint conclusions, could ever be quantified?