I don’t ride many fence rides. Is there a way (likely not) to set a fence only in front of the ride leader? Seems to me the problem is with flyers off the front, not folks getting dropped. Should be a way to zap people out in front but not punish people who can’t keep up.
That’s how the fence is set: seconds ahead of the leader. I suspect some new users read “return to group” and parse it like “close the gap”. To them the group is a pack of flyers.
Gotcha. People off the back aren’t getting dropped, they’re going off the front for fear of getting dropped.
The zapping fence is solely a punitive measure. It doesn’t actually improve the ride it’s used in, as those zapped are off the front and not riding with the leader anyway. The red fence itself is the visual cue that everyone can see that tells them (what they may or may not already know) they are riding away from the leader.
The fence itself people don’t care much about, but when it is electrified and can boot people from the ride - it’s amazing how those people slow down immediately - sometimes to a complete stop!
So the electric fence really does work.
Flyers have certainly affected some of the group rides that I’ve been in. People complain, the flyers don’t listen, ride leaders get upset, and there’s a whole bad vibe caused by a few people who don’t care enough to stick with a group and pace they signed up for. The only people who get upset when they get zapped out of the event are the flyers themselves, and they aren’t around for their complaining to affect anyone in the ride anymore. 
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From the standpoint of discouraging flyers, my point was (perhaps not explicit enough) that I don’t necessarily agree that the zapping fence does any better than a non-zapping fence.
Also, at the same time, the flyers are up the road – the non-flying upset portion on the other hand, are back with ride leader. Can the upset group witness this zapping in some manner that is satisfying and curative to the bad vibe? It might actually be cool if the game produced lightning bolt strikes up the road 
I don’t have a strong preference either way, but the zapping fence does at least make it clearer where the group is supposed to be. Flyers hundreds of metres (or more) ahead of the leader don’t really make much of a difference, but before they get there, they can spend quite some time just in front of the group, confusing especially less experienced riders about where they are supposed to be. (Also I don’t understand why flyers join such rides in the first place. Possibly a Zwift UI fail.)
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Depending on the group size and your place in the bunch, you can see the riders disappearing off the riders list.
One group ride I like features a standard keep-together pace for an advertised time or distance, and then at that point a mad dash for a finish line for anyone who wants to race. Good to have flyers not up ahead at that point, so zap 'em! 
The zapping electric fence works perfectly. As soon as it is turned on in group rides I’ve seen, those flyers stop immediately - they drop to 0w/kg. Some of them I’m sure would ride-backwards if they could.