The problem is that not every account is an active member.
I went through a list of names from the NY message board recently and a huge chunk of names never even had one post. And I've been getting FReepmails from someone who keeps signing up and sending the exact same FReepmail, using up names. It keeps getting banned but keeps coming back. Although I did notice that this time when I clicked on its screen name I got a *Document does not exist on this server* instead of banned or suspended.
There are some names which are not active. My kids all have accounts but rarely use them. The one account my daughter set up never even worked, and yet the user name is registered. And then there are all those who have been banned.
So, all in all, it does not seem that there are as many active, participating members as there are registered screen names, by a long shot.
If there were some way of weeding out the signees who never posted a single thing, that would give a more realistic representation of where FR stands in membership who can actually support FR.
I think the last thing that I read a few years ago was 20,000 active posters.