I’m guessing that’s the DealMeIn/burpo connection because I’m pretty sure I’ve never had contact with the person; same with esmeralda2. Beats the crap outta me how this works.
I’m thinking it’s “thread starter”. Thelma has some large Trump threads, which would explain this # for me.
Chronos gets top spot for me. But the the next two are people who don’t post here anymore: @Skald_the_Rhymer and @Bricker. Chronos makes sense, but you’d think that other posters would have overtaken the other two.
Followed by @aceplace, @Little_Nemo, and @astro. These three definitely surprise me, but not as much.
I am more of a “reply to post” type of person, so I guess I just don’t discriminate much in who I reply to. (I suspect that the difference between the two types of posters is what types of threads they enjoy most.)
It must be all the awesome joke setups I give you.
I think the Game threads would skew heavily to “reply to thread” just because of the nature of the category. I think they tend to have a lot of posts to start with and if those all add into the “reply to thread” of the OP, that’s gonna add up in a hurry.
I’ve never even heard of either one and they both have about 125 posts and 4 threads started. Since you replied to DealMeln 3.5k times and he’s only read 128 posts total, I’m guessing that you are on his ignore list! 
Myself. Huh. How does that even work???
Because you keep doing stoopid shit like this!
It looks like DealMeIn joined in February '14, started a bunch of word games threads and split in March '14. I doubt the Ignore List still works after you’ve been gone 7.75 years.
esmeralda2 joined March '13. She started the “Keep a Word, Delete a Word,” game and last post was September '15.
Is that a hardcover in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me? 
Mine are:
@ekedolphin
@RaftPeople
@Sampiro
@Elendil_s_Heir
@Nema98
@Johnny_L.A
This must include from the old Board. I don’t even remember RaftPeople or Nema98.
Interesting stuff. For me:
BrainGlutton - 105 (banned, I believe) - only a little surprised, he was very prolific and seems to pop up a lot.
John_Mace - 100 (gone) - not a surprise to me at all.
Zsofia - 88 (gone, I believe) - a little surprising, but a lot of cat and book talk I think.
astro - 81 (gone) - another prolific poster.
Little_Nemo - 79 - still active, prolific and seems pretty common on these lists.
RickJay - 77 - ditto.
Mildly surprising that the top four are departed posters of one sort or another. But then I guess that is mostly down to me having posted here for ~800 years.
Now that made me laugh.
BTW, I’m gonna reply to every single post, joke, or topic you put on this here Dope thang.
Next year this time I’ll be the one whose replied to you most.
I do this simply to exasperate you, I’m evil like that. I’m not forgetting the Feb 14th thread either
I’m watching you👁️
As is appropriate for any civilized man.
Oh wait…this ain’t gonna work like I think it will.
Hmmm? Cobwebs in the melon.
I gotta ruminate on it for a few hours.
Excuse me.
Where have I gone wrong in my evil machinations?
You can reply to who you wish to. This goes on your de facto permanent SD record.
You cannot control who someone else replies to.
Or can you?..hmmmm?
Let me review my manifesto.
I’ll be back. Yes I will.
Wait . . . what? I’m pretty certain that I’m your straight man.
My top three are:
@Chronos (24)
@pkbites (24)
@Machine_Elf (21)
I know I’ve responded to pkbites on threads about policing and guns. I’m not sure where I’ve responded to Chronos and Machine_Elf though I do enjoy their posts a lot.
On my wishlist was @Rocketeer because I usually only respond to them when they post one of their delightful models. Had they made it into the top three, it would mean they’re posting even more models for me to envy.
@Idle_Thoughts (614)
@swampbear (453)
@FairyChatMom (413)
@Leaffan (382)
@atimnie (328)
@anyrose (297)
Aww… anyrose. I still miss that beautiful ginger Sweet Adeline!
The rest of these are from The MMP or Thread Games.
Interesting question! My top five are:
@Idle_Thoughts 5.5k
@Sampiro 4.8k
@DealMeIn 4.0k
@ekedolphin 1.9k
@Prof.Pepperwinkle 1.9k
Each is an ornament to the SDMB, naturally!
Most are replies in very lengthy game threads, I think.
@EinsteinsHund 42
@puzzlegal 33
@Beckdawrek 29
@Chronos 26
@kayaker 22
@Colibri 22
The only one there that surprises me slightly is puzzlegal at number 2. Maybe that’s Quarantine Zone stuff? In any case, Hi @puzzlegal !
j
Hi, @Treppenwitz
I confess, I wonder is this function might be a little buggy. It lists my most frequent contact as @AgentFoxtrot , who… may not have made it over to discourse? At any rate, I haven’t talked with them in ages.
I guess I come here to argue more than I thought.
#1 for me is doorhinge, a truly obnoxious sort who doesn’t come around much anymore.
Also on my top 5 list are adahar, bricker, and huricaneditka