How do you handle cliques on your forums?

[The L]

Ove the years, I've been a member of a lot of online communities, both small and large. I've also been an admin on a couple of forums.

One thing that can really negatively impact an online community to the point of leading to its collapse are forum cliques, that is groups of members who usually gravitate around one troublemaker member who has the personality of a born leader. If you ban him/her, all his/her supporters will start complaining and breaking the rules, and soon you're left with having to ban several members, which eventually leads to a decrease in activity and a dying community.

Have you come across such situations? I have. How should an admin handle such a problem? Should they negotiate with the clique's leader in order to prevent the community's decline or should they just enforce the rules without caring about the impact this has on the community's future?

 

[Kane]

I have small communities, therefore, I never experienced that kind of issue. However, on a certain forum, there was a moderator who was really hard on members, yet the admin continued to keep him active.

 

[Heatman]

The only place where I have experienced something like this is in a WhatsApp group and not in a forum. It's where someone who is potentially seen as a popular person usually break the rule and whenever he is banned, a lot of members who like him will always be protesting for him to be added back to the group.

 

[Good-Person]

The only place where I have experienced something like this is in a WhatsApp group and not in a forum. It's where someone who is potentially seen as a popular person usually break the rule and whenever he is banned, a lot of members who like him will always be protesting for him to be added back to the group.

I think that forums are quite different from Whatsapp groups. Having said that, there might be a forum where certain people may not be allowed to join. However, I have never encountered such kind of forums. Almost all the forums are quite welcoming and I do not see a reason why certain people must not be allowed.

 

[Grant]

I have and unfortunately there's not much you can really do but ban the culprit. Yeah some users will throw a fit, but if you have proof the user was doing wrong, you are within your right to ban them. Same goes for any user who wants to throw a fit about their favorite users getting banned. Eventually most users will move on, or leave.

 

[Heatman]

I have and unfortunately there's not much you can really do but ban the culprit. Yeah some users will throw a fit, but if you have proof the user was doing wrong, you are within your right to ban them. Same goes for any user who wants to throw a fit about their favorite users getting banned. Eventually most users will move on, or leave.

I don't get it why some people would act so stupid online. When you're not the one banned and you don't have any shares in the ownership of the forum but such person would like to dictate now things should be done with the forum management. Isn't that madness?