Windle said:
I filter posts by a quick glance at the name, if i know them then i adjust my attitude by whether or not i like them or not by the way they post. So yes, the way i perceive forumites affects the way i look at their posts. If it's a member who i "get along with" i'm more likely to look at their thread, read their posts. If it's someone who i dislike their posting attitude i tend to put less emphasis on reading their threads/posts.
There is a lot of truth in this post for me. I reckon conciously or subconciously pretty much everyone does as Windle says, filters their browsing by seeing who has posted, or who the initial poster is. There are certain OcUKers whom I never read their threads on here. I don't like them, don't like their attitude, so I can't be bothered to read their threads. There are many here whom I do know and like, and even if the thread title is vague (which means I usually ignore it) I'll check in and see what they've posted. And yes, amongst that number would be the oft-called 'clique' group.
cleanbluesky said:
Well I've seen them in person (albiet breifly) and I can certainly say that it probably doesn't exist the way you would expect. There are a group of people with good social skills, Gilly amongst them and they enjoy fraternising both on and off the boards. They exclude no-one, but you cant expect to come up to any of them and just expect to be their best friend. They are a friendly and welcoming bunch who are happy to have anyone in their company, so if you have any trouble having the sort of involvement you want with the group it is not because they have rejected you. Try again, try harder.
You've hit the nail on the head here.. there is no clique as such, just a good bunch of friends, who for the most part have met at least once in real life, but even thats not true in all cases.
cbs is a perfect example of someone who may or may not feel they are part of a perceived clique. Having met the guy over in Essex, and chatted with him (though he doesn't say much and is more one for asking the questions
) I'm more likely to look in on threads he's started or pay a little more attention to his posts.
This so called clique is little more than a bunch of normal people. There is nothing sinister in it at all. If I ever became a member of the percieved 'clique' it came through posting regularly on here, with consistency, and showin myself to be possesing of at least half an ounce of common sense and intelligence. Thats it. There was no point where one day I wasn't in the perceived 'clique' and another suddenly among the 'in'. The first time I realised what kind of impact I'd had on these forums and that people liked, even cared about me was when I'd posted about issues relating to yet another lung collapse and in particular responses to my stay in hospital last year. Prior to that I'd always figured myself to be a prolific and yet not really known poster.
I have never kissed anyones arse, brown nosed an in Don, or whatever else anyone might think results in you being in a clique. I've just been myself. Simple as.
Zefan said:
They do, FACT. As I stated previously in another thread many members wouldn't be able to get away with posting absolute tosh, but members with more "cred" so to speak do simply because they're an old timer and proportionally it's only a drop in the ocean. It seems like a sort of "Ahh it's them, let them have their fun" attitude which I'm actually not too bothered about but do find very interesting.
I wouldn't necessarily describe it as being 'a drop in the ocean', its more that when someone who's been here a while posts its abudantly clear to the moderators, who themselves have been around a while, what the intention behind the post is. Thus something that might be perceived as spam by anyone knew to the forum is seen by those who know the poster to be something of a tongue in cheek post. A couple of months back I did a post about having pains in my stomache and asking what I was supposed to do with this burnt thing my mum had put on a plate and these "knife" and "fork" things to resolve it. It was a bit of a tongue in cheek dig at the number of really stupid "what should I do" posts we'd had here at the time when suddenly it seemed someone couldn't even scratch their nose without asking here how to do it. It was abudnantly clear that those that didn't know me and my dry sense of humour all posted in completely different ways to those who realised outright what I was doing (coming about as close to "just shut up with these stupid questions" as I'd ever normally come.)
This perceived clique literally is just a bunch of friends. If you went in to a knew pub, and just sat down with a random bunch of people and expected to join in the conversation most of you'd probably find it challenging, and possibly find any funny comments or jokes you cracked not going down quite as well as you'd hope. Its no different here.
I think it is there problem if they cant make a debate about what the thread says instead of bringing in unnecessary non-sense.
if not, well the world would be a boring place if we were all the same 
