Zoners - why they do exist?

[jammi]

Personally I've never seen Zoners actually do... zonering. More often than not It's either their loldreads flying through New York or docking at places they arent supposed to, as shown here. In most instances it really is just a powertrading ID.

Yeah back when there was actual zoner factions it was good.
Until the community started chanting zonerzonerzoner because indy zoners kept on doing stupid stuff.

Please.... you guys DO realize that you are blaming an ID and not indies that abuse the ID, right?

A proper RP of a zoner isnt the same an an indy!

Litterally the argument above that you state is against the rules to "dock where they are not supposed to".
As well as "loldreading" in NY. I mean common.

ZonerZonerZoner has existed since like 2007 (technically, probably around 2009 with the [A] drama I guess), so what you're actually saying is there have never been good Zoners? Somehow I doubt that's what you mean, but it is literally impossible to play a canon lore friendly Zoner in-game, because as I said before, they barely count as traders. People go to them and not vice versa. If people were to play them entirely straight, they'd have nothing to do in-game; just like IC.

Also, another thing I find funny is that people usually cite Zoner drama as being started by indies that were acting improperly. This was generally completely untrue. Usually the only time there'd be a drama big enough for anyone to care about, it was because a Zoner faction had done something, or an indy that was a representative of an entire Freeport (consequently with the backing of whichever Zoner governing body/factions were around at the time). People can differentiate and know when a character/group is important enough to cause drama over.

There has been plenty of indy Zoner abuse though, and that generally occured after the drama cycle had begun. See: official factions fouling up relations with the Corsairs, and then indy Nephs raiding Gamma with the Order. Indy abuse and the ID being blatantly overpowered compared to corporate groups was also the reason the ZoI rules were severely nerfed as well. I wouldn't blame indies acting badly for instigating Zoner drama though.