>>>>>FWIW I am getting the same impression of cards being dealt out of the middle of the deck.
>>>>>
>>>>>Spoken like a true gambling man (oh, wait....I'm confusing you with the guys from "The Deer Hunter")....
>>>>>
>>>>>There are no cards from the middle of the deck - I felt from day one that John shouldn't have been banned, and I'm petitioning to change it. As I've subsequently learned that Michel allegedly would have lost a large amount of money (a conclusion I find questionable), the fact that most who have responded want him back is additionally interesting.
>>>>
>>>>Hundreds who might have answered No are no longer amongst us?
>>>
>>>I find it odd that these "hundreds", or even a percentage of them, haven't come back after he was banned. The VFP community is tight and I'm sure people keep in touch with emails. I find it odd that not one person has come forward and said "yeah, I cancelled PUTM because JVP was here."
>>
>>Maybe JVP was seen by them as the most outspoken of a wider group here they don't like. Banning him only may have been not enough to come back.
>
>If that were the case, then I would accuse them of being the problem.

I'm not siding with the ones who apparently left for such reasons. It's only an observation, or better: a hunch. Not an opinion.