It does seem that way sometimes, I have to admit.

NotYourAvgPsycho: ignore the ratings! There are still some good, thought provoking questions and answers, even if they don't get so many points.

Shhhh! Here's our little secret: Don't tell anyone else, would ya? I moderate the site while everybody else is fighting. And I earn points from it! No one earns points from bickering and whining. ;-)

At times it may be less thought provoking but I don't see it as a popularity place. I know of cliques around me but you know, AB is what YOU make of it. If those are the areas you go to and who you hang out or debate with, then it's going to seem that way. If you are interested in answering questions and asking good questions, than you can go about your business and set your own goals and have a really good time here. I can't believe all the crap I seem to miss just because I go about my way through all sorts of interesting categories, and commenting with interesting people, not usually debating or being bullied, or arguing. I find this place very stimulating, full of good people, friendly people. I learn something almost each day. I read questions that get me interested on doing research off site. I share things with my husband as I learn. So that is all thought provoking for me. The more you put in here, the more you will get from it. Don't give OTHER PEOPLE the power to change how you enjoy or use this site. When you get angry or frustrated with them, you hand over to them the controls over your emotions. Take it back. Have a good time, despite all the stuff going around.

Yes it has, the community is not at its high-point.

It's all about high horses and people not being able to admit when they are wrong. I just go with the flow...

I haven't been here long enough to know.

Depends on the user you ask. I don't care about who's "in charge" I'm just trying to get unbored. I don't think I have a clique either, so where does that leave someone like me? I try to ask thought provoking questions, respond to intelligent people, and have some fun here and there. Overall, the community has hit a low.

There's a lot of conspiracy theories out there, and let me tell you...it's stupid. Rather than answering and asking good questions, people are letting the trolls and bad vibes get to them. I don't see why people take getting DR'd so personal. So someone doesn't dig your answer...move on. Let it slide, and stop calling attention to the fact that you think you deserve better. Just my thought on the matter, anyway.

Regardless of what AB has become, I'll continue to ask questions that I find thought provoking. I try to strive for neutrality in social conflicts among users, and think we should all try to behave like the adults that we are. Although, I myself am guilty of remitting to error at times. No one is perfect.

no I don't see it that way ...yeah you are going to make friends and enemies and sometimes this shows through but thats the same in real life and as in real life you don't survive to long by your self

I haven't been here long, so perhaps my answer has little weight, but here is what I see: some people take certain specific issues very personally. Others have vendettas out against one another. Other people just enjoy talking to certain people who are on similar wavelengths. Do all of these count as cliques? I don't think so. If I have persons X, Y, and Z on my friends list, it's because I find what they have to say interesting. And I am more likely to get into discussion with those people because I am consequently looking at their questions and answers. And after having conversations about topic of mutual interest, I may develop a friendship (that is, after all, how friendships generally form -- on- or offline). Does this make me a member of a clique? No. Because I'm as willing to talk and debate with other random people as I am to those on my friends list. Just like I'm willing to meet new people in real life, but I'm obviously going to have more conversations with the friends I already have. I think that people expect internet communities to be somehow different from real life ones, when in fact they are just different incarnations of the same thing. When hundreds of people get together, groups form. They are not necessarily cliques. They are just circles of friends and acquaintances. I think the important thing is to be willing to broaden your circle at any time and, above all, to just let the little things go.