This whole "clique" thing - a vent - be warned!

[Yzma and Kronk]

I am dissapointed. No one even commented on the fact that Mark met Jimmy Carter.

Wow. That is so cool.

I did.....but I subscribed to this thread without posting (Thanks KristaTX)

Also include me in the "I met Jimmy Carter" group. Cause I did!! But that's another story.

Here's Marks:

I once had the opportunity to meet President Jimmy Carter. It was while I was in seminary, and I had the pleasure of about a 5 minute one on one conversation with him. He kidded me about being United Methodist and I jokingly said I would pray for him for being a Baptist - all in fun, no flames please.

My point is this, if I let the fact that Jimmy Carter was the leader of the free world for a while, and the most powerful man on earth for 4 years intimidate me into not talking to him, or running away or whatever, that issue is totally mine - not his. It would be silly to place any blame on President Carter for my leaving. My leaving would be my own fault, not the fault of the former President.

If people have left the CB because of these threads, thats their own issue. I think its not right to place the blame at the feet of these groups existence and not on the feet of those who chose to leave. Understand me - I'm not saying they were intimidated. I also understand if they left because of the hijacking of threads. That would hack me off too. But if they left simply because some people got together and started hanging out. That's their own fault. They chose to leave.

I quoted because I just wanted to say, excellent post! ITA!

I don't read all the posts on CB. Just the ones that interest me. That's why I love the feature whereby you can put your mouse to the thread and see a highlighted bit. Also, this enables me to scroll through a few pages to look for interesting topics. I don't see the problem with topic's being pushed back. Just subscibe or be a page turner. It's a little hard to keep stuff current here at the DIS because of the number of members and posts daily.
In fact, that's what a lot of DIS members like. How fast and current these boards get. I've heard complaints about other places moving too slow.

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

Ok, I have to admit that I have no idea what the highjack drama is about. I read a lot of threads, but I also skip a lot of threads. I am not sure what people mean by highjack. Maybe I just never see those threads.

Although one person said when the topic of the first page and last page do not match... well that would be every thread longer than 2 or 3 pages then because the discussion always evolves. Well maybe not always, but often. I don't see that as a highjack, just a natural progression of ideas.

I was thinking it was a group of people who jump in, ignore everyone else, and the topic... am I close?

Let me clarify what I meant. When the discussion starts out about someone's sick child and it ends up with cyberdrinking.

Of course that's a made-up example (or is it??), but it's pretty obvious when a thread has been highjacked when I see that. I can see a thread evolving - that's normal.

Like someone else mentioned, it becomes too hard to get it back on topic, so it's just easier to skip it all together. By then, it seems everyone involved in the original discussion is gone anyway.

It really doesn't matter to me one way or the other. I just sigh and move along when I see that it's happened.

 

[latoberg]

I wanted to weigh in on the issue of cliques.

My observation of the use of the word clique is mostly by people who are outside of the group they are labeling a clique. Rarely does a group of people call themselves a clique. They refer to themselves as a group/community/gang/club/etc. The word is used most often by people who desire to belong or disapprove of the perceived exclusive nature of the group.

Case in point: Maelstrommers. Now I want to say that is the most fun gang of crazy and sane people I have encountered on any board. Due to their frequent cross communications there has developed a connection between those who would call themselves a Maelstrommer. I see the connection of that group and desire to be a part of it. But I have not pursued that connection.

I believe they are open to anyone joining their group. But they do not actively seek "members". There are no FastPass recruiting drives. My experience has been no group is out to sign up members. Most are welcoming of anyone who shares in the passions/interests being expressed. For simple definitions, anyone who spends time reading the DIS would be part of a clique. There are other boards about Disney out there, but we are all a part of this ONE board. We share in this connection.

Hijacking is just a matter of disregarding courtesy. We see this happening all around us. I haven't found many people who approve of this type of disrespect when it comes to their own ideas. But how each of us handles it, when it comes up, will always reflect on the virtual character we portray in this corner of cyberspace. I hope that if any post I start gets hijacked, I would continue to show respect to everyone - even the hijackers. But we all have a bad day now and then. Just ask the telephone customer service people I deal with.