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[Jay w]

I have been here since just after the start, and i have been and gone a few times.

There are some close groups of friends within the forum and there are times when what they post goes straight over my head, i wouldn't call that cliquey......

i have met up with a few people from the forum myself, either to help them or vice versa, i have been to a couple of meets as well, and have enjoyed myself, however i will admit i am not the most talkative person there, that said everyone i have met has always made me feel welcome

it takes time to integrate into a society, and that is what a well established forum like OOF is.

I have been into Vauxhall forums for may years now, MIG, VXON, even ABS, they all have their communities that are incredibly cliquey  

[LJay]

Not fair to change the poll at this point!
How cliquey is that???

You can vote again if you want.

No point! Shall stick with cliquey! Think changing the poll proves that.

[stuy112]

Read most of the thread and followed it over a few days, had a similer conversation on another forum I'm admin on not so long ago where we were considered cliquey.
To newcomers/non-regular users the forum comes across as being cliquey, but you have to remember your/i'm an outsider that is trying to 'get in' with a group of friends that is already established, and that group of friends will have seen people come and go, use and abuse etc. Stick around and meet people, build up trust, have a good craic and you'll break into that circle of friends eventually.

As forums go this is one of the most welcoming and helpful ones I've been on (and I've been on a few!) I've also met a lot of great people at the couple of meets I've been to and made some great new friends

[ARH1]

Since joining the forum I have learnt more about my mig from peeps in here than I could phoning a vauxhall dealer. I have found people in Here very helpful although at times I have probably asked some stupid questions, they have been very patient. Clique is something I have not found. When I have posted I have had many reads and very few replies but the replies I have recieved have helped me out. Thats what I joined the forum for. I am always reading the posts and if I find that I have nothing worthy to add its better not to reply as that could cause confusion. So thanks to the forum members and keep up the good work

[feeutfo]

Strange, if you want help with a problem i can think of nowhere better, more informed, knowledgeable, helpfull, the effort some people put in to this forum i find incredible. They do it for free, for love, they want to help, pass on what they know... A post like this "could" be upsetting to those people who work so hard for the love of it?

Simple fact is you can not please all of the people all of the time.

Another fact, on here at least, people will still try to keep everyone happy...

Assume it is clique, what do you do about it? :-/ :-/

not at all - we achieved (imho) our initial goal of become the world's best online Omega resource, we now need to stay the best - and we can't do that we our heads up our backsides assuming everything is rosy, when clearly they is a perception of a closed group.

Ok,so the answer is?

[Albatross]

Strange, if you want help with a problem i can think of nowhere better, more informed, knowledgeable, helpfull, the effort some people put in to this forum i find incredible. They do it for free, for love, they want to help, pass on what they know... A post like this "could" be upsetting to those people who work so hard for the love of it?

Simple fact is you can not please all of the people all of the time.

Another fact, on here at least, people will still try to keep everyone happy...

Assume it is clique, what do you do about it? :-/ :-/

not at all - we achieved (imho) our initial goal of become the world's best online Omega resource, we now need to stay the best - and we can't do that we our heads up our backsides assuming everything is rosy, when clearly they is a perception of a closed group.

Ok,so the answer is?

I posted a few ideas on the previous page, trying to be a little pro-active, but this place is so cliquey I don't think they care what I say  

So is there anything we can do about it?

I think there might be (and this is in no way a criticism of what is done now, but just suggestions to take it to the next level)

• How about a more verbose and carefully crafted version of the automatic e-mail that is sent when someone 1st registers that takes time to explain, and welcome, them into the fold. I know that the "New Members" section really works well, but do all new members actually use it? A more pro-active direction of a new member to create that all important "1st post" on that section would be useful.
• I know this bit may sound like gratuitous promotion of the OOF map, but trust me it is an admin overhead for me to manage, but that introduction e-mail could contain details about this and help them to understand that we are about and real people. Many of whom will proabably be local to them and prepared to help them.
• Perhaps a "new member" alerting mechanism or list that can then let other  members see who has joined most recently and provides links to their 1st couple of posts. This way existing members who are worried about this could be enabled to take a more pro-active approach to seek out those posts and respond.
• Perhaps when new members join they could be highlighted to longer term members with a marker other than the amount of posts delivered; suggesting a "date joined" perhaps?
• How about a pro-active approach to inviting members to find out more about regional meets? If you can mandate the "location" field (with a constrained County drop down list) during the registration process, you may then be able to target them with PM's that tell them about more local meets and also provide them with lists of other members in their local area thereby creating more of a "community spirit".

These are all "straw man" suggestions merely to start the thought process and debate and, as such may be complete b0llox or impractical technically, but they are at least some food for thought.