Every active site has them at some point in its life. The general description of a clique is a group of members who've been around a while, they rep each other a lot, reply to each other all the time and generally make anyone else who isn't part of their little clique feel awkward about getting involved in any threads they're posting in. A clique can go unnoticed by an admin and their staff quite easily - especially on a busy site where you can't monitor every thread made. Cliques can cause a lot of damage to activity on a forum, by making members outside of their little group feel unwelcome and their opinions unwanted - so how do you deal with it when it's brought to your attention?
Luckily I have never had to deal with one, on our old forum I know there was one and it was a case of if one left then all of them left together and one ended up getting banned eventually so that worked out quite well there. I really would like to know of a good way to deal with this, if there is one without looking like a bad admin.
Luckily, I have not experienced this as admin. I have (and do) experience it as a member so I just take the piss to annoy them. Admin lets them carry on 'coz they create activity. I would do everything to stop cliques on my board developing, but the success rate would depend on the type of board and relationship between Admin and (clique) members.
There are massive cliques in forums I'm attending and I really dislike them. I respect other's opinions but it's so annoying to read the same trolling over and over again
How would you go about it Barry? Thats something I have no ideas on, it would feel awkward to intervene or say something directly to them.
There lies the problem, it really does depends on the relationship (and confidence) of Admin and clique 'members'. On my boards everyone sees me as part of 'the gang', I'm not someone seen as aloof or 'special' so that gives me the edge to send a pm asking for a favour or to tell them to chill out. On so many forums Admin set themselves up as 'God' and don't you dare try and have personal contact! I take the opposite approach, firstly I'm a member then I'm admin, and I'll be the first to take the piss when I screw up. My opinion is admins should be personable and easy to approach and that paves the way for easy relationships. All of the above is based on my own experiences as admin, staff and member and no way means it is foolproof, but it's worked for me so far
How about putting it into a familiar perspective. How would you deal with it here, Barry .. since I am God of all I survey
Yeah, but where is my coffee Back on topic, if it was happening here I would send a pm clearly outlining my concerns and post a cease and desist notice. Afterall, this is a forum to help and guide admins and mods not a playground for people to gang up on others.
I think I would struggle even being chatty with the members on a day to day basis, I can imagine saying things are going a bit far or talking about it with them and having the lot turn against me.
It s a fine line and it does depend on the type of forum you are running. As I run a general chat type place that is there just for fun it is easy as I am a member first and the 'boss'' secondly. Here at AdX I am Admin, but I just see the position as keeping the spam out, keeping the forum clean and orderly and causing as many headaches as I can for Ahz
I was a member of a site that is now my competitor as I created on my own website to compete with them and it was just like this. members that had been there since the beginning 2 years ago of course are more respected and closer with the admin vs newbies who joined. 3,000 plus members and I imagine that is quite hard to keep up with everyone personally but when you into their chatbox or even posting int he forums, a lot of newbs actually tend to feel ignored, neglected and unwlecomed. Not to mention the mindset that they have is they would rather cater solely to their old "original" crew more so than to the whole community as a whole. Which is fine....But if you aren't going to be inclusive of your entire community than close registration. I called one of their mods out on their treatment of newbs and was told "If they want to be noticed, they need to say or do something to be noticed." That is the wrong mindset to have
