[Marsh.]

And if people are being driven away from the chat threads because they don't want to engage in the same discussions or it's not to their tastes, then isn't that the nature of the beast and the reason for more than one chat thread in the first place?

That's not pack mentality or "cliques", that's simply like-minded members getting along.

It's like sitting with a separate group of kids in the dinner hall, it's not because you hate everyone else but because you gravitate towards the people you get along with. Everybody does it.