There is two different issues here. Regardless of having an N&P thread, CW does not allow all views to expressed. If you come across espousing racist, bigoted, homophobic tendencies then you will be put on a warning, because that is not allowed on CW.
As for the second issue of cliques and bullying; yes some of it has gotten out of hand at times. But I will say that is not a surprise when you have cliques of people because a forum has existed for almost 30 years. But if you went to a party with a new group of friends, and became overly loud and/or obnoxious, where the majority of people knew each other for 20 plus years and you where told to wind your neck in or get out, none of that would be a surprise. Nobody just gets to walk into a new social group (even on a forum) and behave like the rest of the group that have hung around together for years. It took me years of reading and acclimatising before I was comfortable posting across the site. I still delete more posts than publish, because of dynamics and not wanting the angst or to cause angst. There has been plenty of new members in the past couple of years that are more than happy to hang around, in general the people who have come and gone, due to 'bullying' came in guns blazing made a nuisance of themselves and went out in a flounce because they expected to just be treated like everybody else no matter how they behaved. That is just unrealistic of any societal norm.
I can see how some have felt ganged up on at times, but I have also seen some of those people say hang on a sec, take a step back and everybody calmed the rhetoric down (i.e. behaved like the proverbial 'adults'), sometimes through the mods and sometimes by themselves, as people got to know each other better.
