For a while there, there was some slightly tongue-in-cheek whinging along the lines of "oh no, I'm getting five inches when a bunch of clown maps said 18!" from the Triangle folks after those earlier trends. I think it was at least slightly put on for humor and exaggerated for effect.
Now, I think we're wondering whether we see more than an inch, and it's less funny.
(Yes, I'll see myself out to the Cliff Diving thread)