Having an "In-crowd"

I hear a lot of stories of forums where there is an unwritten group of members that have been around longer and are more established. Sometimes, this group tends to be unwelcoming to new members, and they feel that they are "better" (perhaps, "bigger and badder") members than anybody else.

Luckily, I haven't had this problem on any community I've managed... but how can one prevent it from happening? What causes these clique-ish groups to develop and eventually lead to problems?

And if you do have this problem, how do you stop it? You can't really tell this group of members to leave, as they are your best members (been around the longest, contribute the most, but just aren't friendly or welcoming)...

 

To a certain extent I think it can't be helped... you DO want the existing members to bond and find like-minded people. I find the best way to handle this is to tell them openly "we could do this, but I'm worried it will make new members feel like this place is overrun by cliques."

 

I've noticed this on a lot of forums, but thankfully, even though my own members have their own little bonds on my biggest forum, they are still very welcoming to newcomers.

 

It's an interesting problem, you describe it really well. Some forums do seem to attract long-term loyal members who over time become curmudgeonly and/or legends in their own minds. Some of them prefer the same group they've been posting with for years.

I find it really tiresome when they begin to drone on about the 'good old days' of the forum, way back when it was really good ... not everyone remembers it that way, but they can make it sound like it's all been downhill, when that may not be true. It's just their resistance to all change including new members and new threads.

- Protect the newbies. Moderate unkindness to newbies. If some old battle-ax just can't answer a newbie question nicely, ask them to 'please leave it to the mentors.'

- Appoint mentors for newbies, making sure they really want to develop newbies into oldies, not just privately eat them for lunch. In addition to answering pm questions, mentors can gently stick up for the newbie's pov in threads. And respond to their posts (spontaneously of course!) answering the common newbie complaint that they are ignored.

Nothing aggravates the old clique more than the same tired questions from one newbie after another. They have a point that it becomes spam.
So ...
- Have guidelines easily accessible encouraging newbies to use search before they ask a question. Some of them just don't know to do that.
- Have a newbie FAQ and a library of useful links to old posts, and even material that will provide detailed answers to the question they most commonly want more information about than the standard FAQ bullet.
- Set aside certain forums for newbie questions, the ones they want to ask if they used search/links but didn't understand or thought it wasn't specific. Keep it open, but mod it and make sure only people with saint-like patience respond. Encourage newbies to put questions there for x months or so ... if the thread is determined to be of general interest, it will be moved by the mods.

Getting the newbies into the links and search also helps acquaint them with the overall style of forum commuications, the forum culture, and who consider themselves the big cheese as they read old threads.

Anyway ... this is what I've done on my forum ... I could strengthen the mentor angle alot, though.

 

This is a great response.

I've noticed on a few forums I go to that there's a clique like that but for the most part they are all really nice and welcoming to the newer members.

 

Like a clique? I'm actually part of a clique, but we're the exact opposite. We're very friendly and warm to new members. Personally, I like entertaining new members through jokes or having a chat with them via PM.

 

Same here and I find it helps to keep them staying around and they usually end up becoming productive members and doing the same because they feel welcome.

 

Mhmm, and if you find someone wanting trouble, usually the clique puts them in their place.

 

Exactly.

Every forum I've been on has had a clique like that and they usually always straighten a member out that's looking for trouble even before the mods need to handle it.

 

What does yours do if the occasional normal members gets nasty (not sexual) one day?

 

Usually my members don't get nasty towards each other. We've had some heated debates where it's turned into a pissing contest and they start name calling. That's when a mod will tell them to keep it civil and usually the 2 members will take a step back and realize they're being asses and apologizing to each other.

On a forum I used to help run we had one member who had a really sarcastic sense of humor. For the most part everyone got along well with him but one day he made a really rude comment towards a female member about her time of the month. The "clique" lit into him and made him feel like a real ass for what he said. He ended up getting a temp ban because he made like 2 or 3 comments towards her in a few different threads that day.

 

Wonderful members! Maybe also a nice pipeline of potential mods.

 

I always try to gather a core group of members to start my sites off with. I have that now at RHM. Then I build the site from there. It's quite different than a clique.

I have been to sites that do have that "inner circle", aka clique. They're quite annoying.

 

Yup they usually do make good mods. We've upgraded one or 2 members from the "clique" to mod status but the only problem with that is people usually post less when they're staff and the "clique" is usually the most active members so that poses a problem sometimes.

 

I see this type of thing on a lot of forums. They are the people that consider themselves "OG". They do tend to be a little unfriendly, but if they go overboard, I'll make sure to control them. And if it's not my forum, I may be the victim until I work my way up.

 

What do you mean by "OG"? I don't know that acronym

 

Urban Dictionary: OG

 

I search for posts/threads made by newer users to make sure that things aren't too out of hand.

 

ive experienced this on another forum, where the clique of members think they are even above the mods, so i dont want this happening on my forums. i will watch out for the way new members are treated, and make sure the mods are friendly to them and delete or edit any unfriendly posts. so far we seem like one big family

on the other forum, as one of the oldest members (as in, been around since the beginning), i will be welcoming to newbies, and stick up for them if they get on the wrong side of the clique.

 

One thing I gently remind the mods from time to time - the og's (love that term! ) get the same moderating as everyone else. No favorites. The mods are adept at respectfully tapping over-the-line og's on the shoulder without sounding like they are chastising. Since we are matter-of-fact and objective in tone with everyone, that helps.