Do online cliques do more harm or good?

사랑해

I'll back off so you can live.
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    I'm kinda new to this forum's scene, but I've lurked here before, so I'm familiar with some certain groups. Do you think that it's good to have online "cliques," or does it just cause problems? I'm not talking about having a group of friends; I'm talking about exclusive groups that don't allow others into their circle.

    My personal opinion is that as long as they're not "bullying" if you will, it's perfectly fine to have one group that are always together. This is especially true if they're open to others.
     
    Cliques in generally are not real great. So they don't really do good at all. Too me most cliques are just elitist snobs that need to get over themselves and see past their own insecurities, before they act all judgmental against somebody outside of their "group". It's good to have a group of friends, but if it's gets to the point where other people aren't worth the time of the day that just seems pitiful in my eyes.
     
    I don't think "clique" is the word you're looking for. I know what you're talking about, how certain members tend to stick together but it doesn't function like a clique so much as a group of weird friends who doesn't get new members not because they're pushing new members out but because new members themselves are not feeling comfortable joining the "group" and thus drop out.

    Anyways I've seen it happen a lot on smaller forums. On one forum I've attended for years, Golden Sun Realm, there's a particularly severing segregation of members; one that is more sarcastic and tend to troll and mess around more, while the other group tends to be more obsessive over the titular game and are more cutesy and "weeaboo-ish". I'm more aligned with the former but I try to at least appeal to both sides since the mods hate me there because I'm very... gutsy xD

    I have seen online cliques though and those are annoying as hell, most people just ignore them and they tend to appear on very very large forums, more like this one. I don't think there are any cliques that I'm aware of here but I haven't really been around much lately.
     
    It;s bad enough that there are offline cliques (which I was the floater because I got along with everyone) there really isn't a need for online clique because most people that talk to one another do not know each other personally so it would be a dumb idea to do such a thing. And because I feel that Cliques are just really stupid.


    :t354:TG
     
    Let me explain something real quick from my perceptions of my friends.

    In high school, I wasn't part of any group of friends. I was acquaintances with a lot of people, from various stereotypical cliques of people. I got a job and became close friends with two people in particular, and we did a lot of things together up until two of us quit. I found that I preferred having a closed group of friends who knew a lot about me, and who did a lot of things with me, than having sporadic friends here and there with only a small percentage of common interests.

    I'm someone who would rather have a few close friends than have a bunch of friends who know very little about me. I'm someone who, when out in real life, would rather hang around two or three people in particular and experience things together. This would be my core group of friends. I imagine mostly everyone here has friends that they consider to be a core friend. Someone who would wouldn't dare remove or replace. Sort of like a best friend, I suppose. I guess for me I prefer being in a group of friends, opposed to having a bunch of friends that associate with each other, or worse, don't know each other. I don't consider the group of friends I have offline and the group of friends I have online to be cliques, though, despite often wanting to keep them closed up to other people because I want to maintain the relationship and friendship that I have with the current members of the group, so I guess this really serves no purpose other than wasting time.

    Online, I have two main branches of really close friends that tie into three individuals in particular. One of them consists of only one of my close friends, the other consists of two of my close friends. These three are the best friends I have on PC. For one of them, I associate them with a few other people, consisting of a lot of members that I have a great deal of respect for. One of which used to be closer than they are now, but drifted. I group them all, in addition to the one friend that I consider one of my best friends, as a group. Not particularly a clique, but a group of people (in my mind) that I wouldn't want to upset and intervene in. Meaning if they were a club of some sort, and I got an invitation in, I would decline. The other two friends are friends that I've had for a longer time than the other one, and have always considered us to three to be somewhat of a group of people who would tell each other things a lot. Sometimes one of us wants someone else to be inside that circle, and most of the time the other two often state how we/they would prefer it to be just the three.

    I'm very terribly confused after typing that. :/ I was a member of two cliques here at PC, and my time in both of them wasn't as much as I was expecting. My first clique was something that happened gradually when I first joined, then developed into this small club sort of thing, and then became really closed off to inviting others... I think. My second clique was something I wanted to be in for a long time, and once I finally got in, I felt like a complete outsider to all the other members. I still talk to most of them individually now, but I know now that if I met myself from back when I was longing to be in that group, I would tell myself not to bother and that I already talk to most of the members that are in the group as it is, and it isn't anything all too special when they're all put into a group, since I don't share the same interests as they do in a group setting.

    I think cliques are sort of natural. Not in the middle school sense of it, but in the sense that you've got a small group of people you're attached to, and adding new blood into it just complicates things 2 out of 3 times.
     
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    To an extent, online cliques could do some more harm than good because some cliques look down on others.
     
    I never understand the people who actually call themselves a clique, either online or offline, because it has such a negative connotation in regards to bullying. :/ But groups of friends, which I'm assuming is the main idea here, are going to happen regardless. There's nothing anyone can do to stop it and the most staff can do to curb any bullying or wrongdoing by them is to tell 'em to back off if they're getting obnoxious or too controlling. It's happened a few times in the past.

    I don't even see a problem with a group being "elitist". It's not very inviting, but it's a group of friends and if they don't want to let someone into it because they don't like them... I don't see why that's a problem. :P
     
    As a loner, I used to be really bitter about them. I've never really been popular, so I got bitter when all the popular people gathered together and I wasn't included in anything. :/ It was probably my fault for not being social, because no one's gonna invite me to do anything if they don't even know me, but I digress. I'm still a loner that doesn't talk to anyone. It's a vicious cycle.

    Now? As long as they're not actually harming anyone, let them be exclusive if that's what they want. I don't think it'd be harmful. If someone can't get in, then they'll hopefully find somewhere else where they'll fit.
     
    It depends on how you define a 'clique'. By definition'
    clique |klēk, klik|
    noun
    a small group of people, with shared interests or other features in common, who spend time together and do not readily allow others to join them.
    Click to expand...
    yeah they're absolutely a bad thing because they don't let others in.

    I think an issue with cliques, and I hate to admit that I see a fair few of these on PC, is that they often don't realise they're not letting others in. If a group of people is too tight, then even thought they're happy to let others in, it might seem to be too intimidating for people to attempt to enter.

    I'm not gonna go into any details since I don't want to start dropping names, especially since some people I think are involved in such groups have posted itt, but I know that when I was a newbie here I was terrified of the idea talking to people in tight friendship groups and there are some people I see now who I knew back when I was new who seem to have become involved in such groups without even knowing it, and I can get why they might seem unnerving to some.
     
    It's circumstantial, I suppose. Is it just a friendly online clique(emphasis on friendly) with absolutely no harmful intent to others, who's only purpose is to just stick together and whatnot? Sure, I don't see the harm in that. What's wrong with having a group of friends that always stick together and hangout? As long as there's no negative effects or actions that come out it and whatnot, I don't see anything necessarily wrong.

    If they were just a traditional clique that didn't allow "new people" to join in, then yeah, that'd probably be an issue then. I initially think of cliques as honestly no more than just a group of friends that band together just to have fun(at the start), but then perhaps conform and attempt to do foolish actions later on only because they think they have powers within numbers, or something of that nature. x_x;

    I hope that made sense.
     
    Vendak said:
    I found that cliques just tend to be restrictive. Roaming's the way to go!
    Click to expand...

    Pretty much what I was going to say. They tend to have a bunch of rules, which restricts what you want to do or something. Lurking/Roaming ftw!
     
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