virtual cliqueing 

Much like social cliques in high school, virual cliqueing can occur in online forums or threads where two or more people take over a conversation, steering it in such a direction where all other users leave the forum or thread. As in social settings such as school, a clique can be formed online when people with similar interests take over a certain topic and literally close out a once vibrant thread, due to their esoteric ramblings or code language unknown to the greater community using that forum/thread

Online Commentator 1: "Just like in high school, Charles and Justin had to veer off on a tangent, driving the rest of the online contributors onto a different thread to complete discussing our original topic. Charles and Justin are good at virtual cliqueing themselves while closing out once popular threads."

Online Commentator 2: "Yeah, quite peculiar, it's like they are deliberately trying to ostracize themselves, just like in high school."

virtual cliqueing by hammerofthegods February 14, 2012