I'm one of the more prolific posters on PPrune - it maintains my sanity to a large extent when beaten to death by management meetings, which are to an annoyingly large extent my lot these days.
On the other hand, I have a professional licence, and I have been paid to do a job of work in an aeroplane from time to time since about 1989. I've not worked outside of aerospace since 1988 (whether I've done much useful work inside it is a healthy debating point of-course
). For much of that time I've had professional pilots working for me, or alongside me.
Flying has never been my full time job, and the odds are that it never will be. For the years I've been flying, my hours are frankly pretty low.
But, I like to feel that I belong here, can contribute, and I certainly get much more than a hobbyists benefit (despite flying being also very much my hobby, as well as my job) and I'm sure that there are others like me.
Pprune is badly named. Firstly we have every flavour of aviation professional here, not just pilots. Secondly, it is vastly more than rumour. But it's a fantastic place to talk shop - albeit that you have to be cautious to try and understand where people are coming from in terms of their own qualifications and experience.
G