Belatedly...
Well, a lot of those inflated numbers were due to OpenID place-holder accounts being created when people 'ported over their journal posts, including comments. So the numbers weren't pulled out of thin air, but they definitely included a group of non-participants who shouldn't have been counted. Inclusion of OpenID accounts at all is iffy, IMO, but especially inclusion of ones that were never requested by their "owners" is a bit skeevy. I was perfectly glad to be able to 'port over my comments, but the way it counted my fifteen friends who had no interest in DW (and, in fact, had stopped journaling a year or two earlier) as active members did bug me.