Do you ever feel Mahalo has a clique atmosphere?

Also stops staring at Omicron in glassy-eyed amazement* What an interesting and honest answer, Omicron. I assure you, the glassy-eyed faces made by people (and the guy pictured in Bunny's answer) would be made up of around 90% amazement at your incredible, unique and fascinating brain, in a good way, and only about 10% of... well... wondering what planet you're from. :) I get my fair share of those looks too, but in my case it's probably more because my brain and behaviour are sometimes... well... just "different".. :D (I will be publishing more fascinating information on this, in an article about the Australian concept of dagginess, in the near future.

Opher, that's what I needed help about that mathematical formula for, thanks again. All will be revealed...) I think it's great too, Omicron, that you touched on the fact that different people really do have some different criteria on what they think deserves a best answer, or a vote. Our brains all work thoroughly, THOROUGHLY differently.

I guess if rspears means there are "cliques" as in, little exclusive friend groups and a non-welcoming atmosphere... I just really don't see that. If they meant that at times there are certain ways of doing things that are liked or appreciated more than others, well that's certainly true and in the case of Mahalo, I feel it's an important and good thing. I think there may be a certain element of more closeness and camaraderie between people who have been interacting here for a long time, or who talk regularly in IRC and know a little about each other's real lives, and things like that.

But not cliquiness that is based on some sort of mob thinking or "status" rather than merit. And it can sometimes be a difficult thing to find an internet community that is free of this. Heh heh... if this is an exclusive club demanding lots of coolness and "cred", I'm not sure what I'm doing here... I just slid right in without feeling like I was being judged or something... Even being a giant noob and somewhat weird, crazy and silly, I feel I was treated with total equality to others who have been here forever, and I feel I was given a chance and not considered as being of "less value" or something due to being new... and ... well... silly.

:D That includes how my answers were treated - I really feel like my answers are, overwhelmingly, treated on the basis of their perceived merit, not on the basis of who I am or what I've done or how long I've been here. I think there's a definite overall acceptance of different types of people, and of little things that don't matter too much. It's noice.

:).

What I like about Mahalo is that you have to prove yourself here by answering and asking great questions. It takes time to earn all the points and belts. When I first started, I looked up to everyone, but I never felt left out because I was too busy participating.

Sure there are groups here, but I don't think there is the elitism that this person talks about. I spend just as much time promoting and helping others as I do myself here. I am always looking for fresh new faces in the Answers area.

Within any community you'll find cliques... I just don't think they're as negative as your friend implies. When a question pops up that I want to answer, and I see it already has a great answer... I will promote it. I see no reason to give a repeat on an answer.

Or will add a comment and help that person out. I don't like it when things get too competitive, but there are people out there who just echo identical answers and wonder why they're not picked. Again... this community is transparent enough to showcase anyone who tries hard and uses all the resources that are available here.

I know I'm not a 'leader of the pack', if I was I would have already summoned up all of my mahalo minion and have taken over the world by now.

Well, mostly no, with a dash of yes. There are certainly some Mahalo members who have a proven track record of providing quality answers. It is possible that when some other members see one of those "leaders of the pack" have answered a question, they may figure they have little chance to compete, and move on to another question.

However, this is not because those leaders are cliquish, or because their answers automatically get preferentially selected. It is simply a perception (misplaced, many times) that "I can't do better than @buddawiggi" (to give one example of a great Mahalo Answers member) which may cause people to give up without trying. So, I'd say that there is a certain level of a prophesy fulfilling itself in that kind of attitude.

However, to give one counter-example, in the recent Answer of the Year contest, my entry took first place although I am a relative newcomer to Mahalo (as of late Sep 2009) while @buddawiggi and @bunnyphuphu, both amazing Mahaloians, and certainly leaders here, took 2nd and 3rd place. Another great counter-example is @edwardclint, who joined even more recently than I have, and is already in 7th place overall in Mahalo in terms of Best Answers, with 825 BA's out of 1534 answers provided. In a short time @edwardclint has climbed ahead of such MA legends as @dcanswerer and @drmatt (to name just two of many MA "leaders"), disproving the notion that there is a clique involved which prevents newcomers from doing well.

I had not noticed any cliques until this question was asked before and in some of the answers I as a user was included in to group of users who might be considered in a clique. I had actually not really given this much thought before that previous "clique" question (I can't find the link right now). We do develop recognition and trust with each other and hopefully a mutual respect for the objectivity and neutral point of view.

I like to think I recognize talent and knowledge and try to emulate those qualities and gravitate towards them. Those of us who are here every day I can bet will be able to identify each other but maybe I am naive to think that this is not a clique or at least clique development. As a whole .. all of us Mahalo users, we are collectively an internet clique, well at least that is how I see things.

We are all on the same team and aspire to hold similar values and similar but individual motives for being and participating here on Mahalo. .. does that make us as a whole a clique?

There is another popular website that has been accused of "cliquism" a lot of late, and in my view, with good reason. That site is Wikipedia. It's becoming a very difficult place for newcomers, and more established editors can often summarily remove a newcomer's contribution if they don't happen to agree with it for whatever reason.

There's a big "barnstar" culture over there, where users can decorate each other with badges of honour for mickey-mouse reasons, knowing they'll probably get one in return. The more "barnstars" you have, it appears, the more you'll be able to throw your weight around the site. While a political dimension is inevitable with regard to any website, or any type of large organisation, based on my relatively short time here on Mahalo Answers, I would stop short of calling it "cliquish".

A recent thread discussed some of Mahalo's "highly favored members"; I think the main reason why those members were celebrated on that thread is because they are not cliquish in any way. There may be members who do deliberately gravitate towards high-profile users in a bid to further their own Mahalo status. However, I think there's too many right-thinking people on this site for members like that to have much or at least prolonged, impact.

I have also been impressed that there are several Mahalo members who do not hesitate in speaking out if they feel that another user is acting against the spirit of Mahalo. It can be hard sometimes not to want to return a good deed, or take "revenge" for a perceived slur. I think it's up to each Mahalo user to act as "real" as they can, and to make sure their Mahalo actions are not what we might call "politically motivated".

I am a relatively new member at Mahalo, and I have noticed many "names" asking and answering questions. But in Mahalo's case, advancement is such a transparent meritocracy that the people that rise through the ranks are the ones genuinely putting in the effort. I've noticed by frequenting a variety of forums that certain types of people are more likely to be active in an "Answers" function than in other functions of a site like Mahalo.

There may be some people who are more busy with tasks and page building, and aren't interested in Answers as much. Because they don't participate in Answers, they aren't as visible, but they're just as active in Mahalo as a whole. I've been making an effort to try out all of the different areas of Mahalo to meet different people and see what interests me most.

When I joined I never noticed any cliques everyone was very nice and helpful. I imagine if someone joins and doesn't participate much so no one really knows them then it might kind of feel like you're on the outside looking in. But that would be of your own doing not because Mahalo has cliques.

:).

I’m more of a casual user and I answer only on some niched topics. So far, I didn’t notice that Mahalo has a clique atmosphere. When I first joined Mahalo quite some time ago, there are even Mahaloians who especially provide insights and are more lenient to newbies.

On the “clique atmosphere” related to popularity of questions, I don’t think that is a problem. Sometimes, it’s more of reciprocity, sometimes it’s personal taste of question. Peoples may have same tastes and thus vote each other questions up.

This is not harmful as questions will have more $ value and good for answerers too. For questions being answered, clique may not be “ethical”. If you found evidences of syndicates that choose best answers of each other, you may report it.

Often, it’s hard to prove, as it’s subjective which answer is best, unless the chosen answer is downright low quality. If you find persons that always do this, avoid their questions. Choose to answer questions by askers that are more impartial.

Well, I got here is early October. I think. It's all starting to run together.It was pretty clear that there was a "group" of heavy hitters and I certainly wanted to be one.

I thought a good way to get noticed by the "in crowd" was to start answering questions with really good writing skills. It worked. People knew who I was quite quickly, and I felt like part of the gang in no time flat.

It's clear, when someone is new, that they will or will not be a shining star at Mahalo. Those who become part of the insider group just stand out! I know many others know what I'm talking about.

Dr. Matt will have to let me know if I've truly made it into the "in crowd" or not. I think I have. He says I'm delusional.

Oh well. Back to writing How Tos!

I joined mahalo back in october of last year and lurked around for a while. I wanted to get a feel for the place before jumping in. I would answer questions in a few topics, but mostly ones that I had some previous knowledge on or the question was so interesting that I felt like I wanted to do some research on it.

I became more active around december when I started picking up pages, writing how-tos, etc. In my time here, I notice that this question comes up periodically. It is unfortunate that your friend feels this way because I don't think its true either. Certainly, as others have mentioned, there are some people that are more active than others.

This is natural for any site. But anyone can jump in and be an active member. The only real prerequisite is that you be helpful.

But reputations take time to build. Like all communities, I think mahalo welcomes newcomers that seek to further the site through good questions, good answers, and creating good pages. I've notice that newcomers who don't quite get the system can be brief and/or glib in their answers, which isn't something that is really appreciated.

People try to get content pages by taking tasks and then cutting and pasting the information from somewhere else on the web and try to pass it off as their own. This also is a less than desirable quality. But overall, I think this a site where you can get back the effort that you put into it.

If you don't ask or answer questions, then there won't be much of a return. Or, if the answers are not really useful, then not much of a return. Not all answers have to be long; short answers can be very useful.

However, someone posted (sorry can't remember who) that answers should hopefully be something more than that which I could look up myself. (That was in reference to how people choose BA). If someone is asking a lot of the free 25cent questions, then I think those questions can get lost in the deluge of other 25 cent questions once enough new questions are asked to push it down the list.

Without a vote up out of the question limbo, they might disappear of the front page of the category. Then people get discouraged because no one can find their question. The people who are more active actually go in and vote these good questions up and thus perform more of a service.

Some people don't like the fact maybe that questions cost to vote up, but as @buddawiggi had mentioned in another post, if you tweet them first, then vote up, you break even or make money. Some people are just more visible because they are on the site more by asking questions, answering questions, voting up questions, adding sources, etc.If this seems cliquey than that is unfortunate.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.