[quote=@Lord Wraith]
Now I'm not looking to create world peace here, but we're talking about people who all share the same hobby and likely the same interests, or at least overlapping ones if they're applying for the same RP. So why can't we all get along? We do we lash out at one another or create memes to mock another by taking their comments out of context? Why are we so downright horrible to each other when we barely know the person behind the other screen. 

Fall outs between players, GMs etc can kill an RP quicker than any other factor. So what exactly is that creates these behaviours and how can they be stifled? What works for you as a GM/player when it comes to avoiding or negating toxicity around an RP or another player and what factors turn you off from joining an RP?

How can cliques be managed? How do we stop mob mentalities from grouping up on other players and how can new players break into the clique of a group established RP?

As always, please weigh in with your thoughts and opinions below. Let's have a civil discussion!
[/quote]
I've probably gone into greater lengths about subjects like this one before. But I'll try my best to keep it brief, as someone quite used to cliquish/bandwagon behavior. Having been apart of it here for a good while, plus multiple separate forums and various other settings in life. (And several other various instances that friends have experienced themselves.) 

I can pretend it's multi-layered and complicated. Or that it's even about potentially complicated matters that are easy to get confused and messy, such as how most online hate mobs usually all come from disagreements or presumed disagreements in politics. But no, I can potentially sum up almost every hate mob and clique fight in existence in online and real life circumstances. 

Evil assumes evil. Projection. People have selfish/self-centered desires. They'll never go away and very rarely are used for others benefit. People can and will hate people for absolutely no reason, because it's beneficial to how they feel exclusively. It's a sociological fact that people need allies, but more importantly, need enemies too. Even if they have to create them out of thin air. And in the world's most prosperous and peaceful times that's basically begging for that to be the case. Just read a few books on psychology and suddenly hate mobs almost seem par for the course.

You can be one of four people and choose what person you are and who your enemy is/how to defeat them. And it's pretty self explanatory and it's almost always locked on point that these people will stay this way. Every single one of these achieve the goal of gaining potential allies and enemies.
[list]
[*]1. Judge everyone else constantly.
[*]2. Judge those who have wronged you constantly.
[*]3. Judge whoever is being judged or judge the people you've deemed lesser than you for hopes you'll rise in status of those who judge you.
[*]4. Judge yourself and constantly, to focus on worrying on how you can be better.
[/list]
The other question revolves around how GM's or leaders (admins/moderators) of social media platforms, threads, forums, etc. Tend to be the ones that ruin the campaign/whatever is being run through their own laziness, incompetence or abuse of their authority to unleash the ban hammers. And that is true. But that is also almost always the simple outcome of, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Most people in the world (and that includes those that hold these positions) have never held actual powerful positions in life. Which makes them almost guaranteed to fail as leaders, because it's really easy to spot the pretenders in that regard. It's very cheap and fleeting satisfaction to use and abuse any shred of power you have over others. But nobody genuinely respects these kind of people, you just get most of them to stay silent about it. Though that just makes finding the good and responsible leaders, who have the self awareness to respect their position, all the more endearing to me.

There's my two cents on the matter.