I explained the Zone mechanics some time ago. The content providers are the top dogs - they start the threads and provide raw material for conversation. Look at the names that pop up again and again and you will see the real "pattern."

After that the user/responders come in and a conversation begins. Depending on the topic it either excludes or includes segments of the contingent here.

When TB goes on sabbatical, the place becomes a dysfunctional ghost town. If he didn't come in here "standing on the pool table" every day most folks would click away - as there is too little content. TB is a content provider, as are you when you are active. During TB's absence I stepped up for awhile to provide content, but it is often an unsatisfying role, when the user/responders are no longer compatible with the content provided.

I smile as I watch Lindy kiss up to you...and bash TB and myself. You are now the official TB of the left, the new verb-laden content provider who can finally throw enough words into a post to give them a little weight and substance. You're the champion of the socialist-everyman and the others will vicariously enjoy your responses the way folks at the 'old' Zone used to get a kick out of TB or other conservative content providers.

Your absence will now always be keenly noted as well. All content providers serve a valuable purpose to a discussion board. The Player's Club, I lament as lost, had plenty of content providers and because of this it gave more variety to the topics and the interaction. There was more meat.

The reality is, the people dropping their pants for a quick mooning are those who respond to our posts with a quick derogatory n/t or one-liner post response. They've been burned enough and dont want to get into a verbiage battle so settle for the quick n/t. Sure, there are exceptions, but one look at the threads around here tells the whole story better than this post can ever hope to explain. A post where TB and myself team up on an issue is like using a flamethrower to kill the weeds or a 16 wheeler to haul the groceries home from the market - massive overkill. No sane person wants to caught and battered in that sort of thread and so the wolf pack style attacks are the only response one finds. Lots of little n/t nips and one-liner bites, merely to get the big bad syllable throwers to get discouraged.

The content providers will always be both loved and hated. But the bottom line is they are always more loved than hated - because without them there would be very little to do here, to read or to talk about.