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I believe the 'clique' people are referring to is simply the group of regulars who (even though they might not all like each other) interact with each other consistently due to familiarity and a bit of a camaraderie-type feeling. Those who are new to the community are largely left out of those exchanges, you can't deny it, and it's those exchanges that make you feel like you are a part of the community. Having been fairly 'close' to this site in the past, leaving a couple of times and coming back a couple of times, I think I'm in a pretty good position to attest to the truth of this phenomena. The flack that is being raised seems to be coming more from the folks who want to disallow the existence of said 'clique' (which probably isn't the most accurate description...in fact, I like comrades) than the folks who are saying 'um, yeah it does.' It's not anyone's fault. It's just the way it is.
And I imagine that the majority of the most frequent contributors here went through a phase as newcomers when they didn't feel so much a part of things, but then one day, maybe without even noticing it, they did. That's the way it was for me. I think I've written that about a dozen times here on similar threads. So instead of telling newcomers they are wrong for feeling 'outside the fun' most of the time, you should acknowledge that it's normal and encourage them to be patient and keep posting.
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Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce
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