Have the post counts dropped with the absence of search
 

Curious?

The lack of search means it's impossible to find many threads in a reasonable period, so I'll bet the post count is down. At the same time, the number of unnecessarily generated threads is probably up, since we have to start new ones when we can't find the ones we want to add to.

Doesn't appear to have based on these stats

or here:
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/tr...=flyertalk.com

Might be a good reason to ask a moderator about a particular topic you are looking for. I think you'll find them to be a great "search" assistance. We have a variety of tools to help our members, and a moderator is one of them.

Several former participants in the CX forum are no doubt dropping their jaws at the irony of that pronunciamento.

I would expect posts to have increased. I've seen a number of threads where people were asking for help on particular topics or locations where threads already existed, but may not be obvious from skimming only the general forums (fora?) (MilesBuzz, TravelBuzz, DiningBuzz, etc.). Even if Google had been used to search, I expect the hits may have been too high to be of practical use.

(That's one reason I'm an advocate for moderators moving threads on topics covered by specific forums out of the general forums into the specific forum.)