Cliques and Homesteading on the NEt

[Tango]

Remember childhood cliques? Being outside of them, I don't remember them fondly. It was something I thought adults didn't do- alas I'm socially inept not grounded in enough hard knocks (I keep finding more). As an adult that has dropped out of society by choice, it is mind boggling to see childhood cliques alive and well on the Internet. Of course the names have changed and the associations are different but the exclusivity, and narrow-mindedness, or outright stupidity is still there. I've joined many Internet groups for the past ten years. For the past three I've joined many homesteading type groups. When a group produces more private mail as a way to communicate responses than posts (which are viewable to all members) I begin to see a red flag. Why woudl someone e-mail me privately instead of posting a reply? Well, because they'll get slapped by other members. I just quit a group today that has been marginally helpful, extremely contradictory, and unfortunately one of only a few of its kind. Good riddance! Why do cliques persist into adulthood?

[oz in SC]

Personally I find forums quite liberating-you can pretty much say ANYTHING you like and have no-one to answer to but yourself.

As to why cliques exist on the 'net,I imagine it has something to do with certain people being afraid of what others(complete strangers though they are) might think of them.Therefore they PM others so as not to offend or get in trouble.
I have had people PM me and tell me they like what I've written but they don't post openly showing support....

[Tango]

Originally Posted by oz in SC

Personally I find forums quite liberating-you can pretty much say ANYTHING you like and have no-one to answer to but yourself.

As to why cliques exist on the 'net,I imagine it has something to do with certain people being afraid of what others(complete strangers though they are) might think of them.Therefore they PM others so as not to offend or get in trouble.
I have had people PM me and tell me they like what I've written but they don't post openly showing support....

Not sure if there is a difference Oz but I was speaking about the e-mail groups, like yahoo groups or msn groups - should have been cleaer but I was ticked at the time. I like forums like this one and don't see the same type of cliquish thing going on. People come and go and the scenery changes on forums, not at all a stagnant group of people building walls together.

Well, it is only one more level past "you must register to post", which can get just as stagnant over time.... And that applies to any group online, by the way.

Just an observation.

[evilbunny]

Just recently, like this week, had a fun time on a yahoo group. There was a certain individual who was posting nasty comments and had gotten way out of hand, was posting about spam postings and sending out comments over and over and over. Wanted everyone to be moderated unless the group leader knew them. It was a rant for many days. His postings were more obnoxious than the two spam postings that were put on. I would say he posted @ 20 times. Anyway, he got banned from the group.

Sometimes cliques are a good thing.

[anOldTroll]

on the internet it isn't so bad, you can pretend to be like them and then go somewhere else and pretend to be like someone else. In real life it is just as miserable if not worse than in high school. I have been fired from a good paying job because the clique didn't like me, and have quit others because it was one gossip party after another and nothing got done during business hours, these people put in long hours and got most of the work done late nights - i raise chickens and rabbits, both of which need to be fed and have their houses secured for the night not to mention the kids who expect supper before bedtime...
oh well... its just life, we make our own choices and have to live with the mistakes...
sorry you had a bad deal...

[Shrek]

Let me guess. You dont consider Homesteading Today forums to be a clique. So many here convieniently forget the numerous times that participants here have cyber crucified new posters and occasionally established members as trolls with no factual evidence in support of their decision to persecute the poster.

Of course, when the boards do go on their witch hunts its often right after somebody has gotten all mushy about how nice the cyber community here is and how much we all care for each other and help each other. Then the next day "torches are being wrapped and dipped" and the mob assembles "because they arnt really one of us" . Cliques exist everywhere. I even have a clique. The clique of One and you cant join it

[Tango]

Shrek I've got my own clique of about 100, but I'm the only human. I get great pleasure in watching my animals reject, or better yet, growl or run after, "outsiders." but no not HT. I don't have much experience with other homesteading forums. At least here, the people change enough that - at least in my observation- hasn't been condusive to cliques. Of course I see the attacks and sometimes they're predictable..
anOldTroll, Yeap. Seen that too. The last place I thought to find a clique was in a group intended to support and educate. As time marches on I keep learning...
evilbunny I would consider that annoying and might give the person an ultimatum but it doesn't sound like a clique- just consensus. This particular group I am referring to is full of contradictions but only the popular opinions are posted. The ones that will get negative attention from the clique are e-mailed privately. As a newbie, I joined the group to learn but with the contradictions and the negative attacks, I didn't learn much. Got more confused than anything and have decided to buy a book. In fact for the past two days some information was posted that was flat out inaccurate from my own experience and knowledge and no one objected.
At any rate, I'm outta there and that's one less irritation today

[Bluecreekrog]

Bravo Shrek! I thought it, but you said it.

[Ardie/WI]

Every now and then, through the years, I've seen or received by PM complaints that these forums contain cliques. I don't seen them myself. I do know that some of us have been posting here and in the old Countryside Magazine forums for a good many years but I don't see us as unfriendly to newbies unless they become obnoxious. And we give them a lot of time to settle in before smacking them 'long side the head verbally.

I disliked cliques in high school but I was such a rebel that I couldn't have belonged to one if I would have been invited to join.