Cliques are a curious one and can be a bit of a problem where you have an inside group and outside group on a site. A good reference here on the subject is Sitepoint: https://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?308963-Dealing-with-Forum-Cliques
Cliques
- Thread starter Azareal
- Start date
Shannon Apple
Resident
I'm actually really happy to say that SakugaCity doesn't have cliques. Many moons ago on the old forum, cliques existed, but I successfully dissolved them. I have no time or tolerance for this behaviour and when I became a mod, I suspended people for 2 weeks who caused crap. Another mod was like "why did you ban him, he's cool." I said "He was breaking rules. I don't care if he's a veteran." A newbie would be banned for the stuff they were getting away with. The veterans were no longer immune and couldn't behave crappy. I was the only mod not afraid to suspend them. Other staff couldn't take the fallout because they were their friends.
I set up different things and deliberately involved some of the newest people on the site by asking them to help me run forum events and contests. I earned the respect of a lot of people on that site and I was the most active staff member anyway. I became an administrator much later. I had banination powers from the first day I was a mod, and I used them. It has to work from the top down. If you choose veterans to help you with everything, then they'll think themselves superior.
The people on SC are too old for that behaviour now. We have very few people under 20 years old. That doesn't mean that they don't get on each others nerves at times haha. However, when new members join, they are very welcoming toward them. If they're active, they basically become one of them and sometimes I forget that they are new. There's no crap.
It's all down to the administation. If your mods are allowed to pander to cliques, then you'll have cliques. If you and your mods are above this kind of behaviour and are willing to reprimand your friends who break rules and attack others, cliques won't happen. 🙂
I set up different things and deliberately involved some of the newest people on the site by asking them to help me run forum events and contests. I earned the respect of a lot of people on that site and I was the most active staff member anyway. I became an administrator much later. I had banination powers from the first day I was a mod, and I used them. It has to work from the top down. If you choose veterans to help you with everything, then they'll think themselves superior.
The people on SC are too old for that behaviour now. We have very few people under 20 years old. That doesn't mean that they don't get on each others nerves at times haha. However, when new members join, they are very welcoming toward them. If they're active, they basically become one of them and sometimes I forget that they are new. There's no crap.
It's all down to the administation. If your mods are allowed to pander to cliques, then you'll have cliques. If you and your mods are above this kind of behaviour and are willing to reprimand your friends who break rules and attack others, cliques won't happen. 🙂
I have a large group of people who came from another forum and they all know each other. It's hard for them to let newbies come in and feel welcome on the forum because they're suspicious of outsiders. So I do think of them as a sort of clique because of that. It's been hard work in getting them to allow others to get close to them and I think it's the hard work of the outsider who convinces them to do so.
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