That describes practically every group I have participated in.
It's tough for some people to accept that circles like that develop, but they're natural human group formations. I think we all fall in and out of circles during our lives.
Sometimes I feel like an outsider, and am better able to criticize folks who are inside the circle.
Sometimes I'm inside the circle and unable to see problems.
There have been many chapters in the book of AppleNova which, it could be argued, was borne out of a clash of cults of personality over at AppleInsider.
When I joined AI back in 1998 it was a fabulous adventure, and I had many preconceptions about people and politics that were handed down to me by my parents and the culture in which I was raised.
I knew precious little about the experiences of people who were not like me. I trusted the narratives of conservative politics well ahead of anything else.
Over the years the smartest people that I met on the boards challenged my approaches in myriad ways; the less confrontational discussions left me to go out and observe the world, and to reconsider things based on new perspectives.
As a result I have made a move towards becoming more liberal in my middle age, something that conventional wisdom says is less common.
The language used on the boards here these days is less parsed than what we would find in more public forums. There is less sensitivity to issues that drive today's inclusive cultural shifts and I can understand how that might make AN less attractive to some people.
Sometimes I wince at comments posted here because they are raw and don't hedge against the criticisms that would happen on larger platforms.
Being from the same generation and most likely same ethnic and socioeconomic strata as many of the most active members, I understand the spirit in which the comments are made. We are friends here, dispensing with social politeness and employing frank language that conveys what is likely a widely shared belief (like, this person in a news story is an asshole, or whatever) by those of us with those shared experiences (white, straight/cis, male, judeo-christian, conservative backgrounds).
It would be interesting to know why various members departed the forums. I suspect that it's almost always that life became all-consuming and their interests changed over time.
But, like my old church, there's the possibility that a cult of personality was enough to drive them away. Cliques happen so easily that you might not even know you're in one.
And then some people just want to complain.
It takes all kinds, to make a world.
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