This just sounds really snobbish and cliquey to me
I don’t think that’s a fair comment in this particular case (disclaimer: I ride with Trimix every week). In practice, it means that
1. We use a mailing list to advertise and plan rides. Occasionally we’ve posted on here and new people have been added on or we’ve added friends and acquaintances. This means that everyone knows exactly what to expect and we avoid the kinds of problems that come up when someone arrives with very different expectations of the ride.
2. We organize different kinds of ride to accommodate different people–faster and smaller on Tuesday evening but larger social rides with partners, pubs and picnics on the weekend.
3. We can (hopefully) do stuff that keeps everyone happy–that lets people join in but doesn’t, like Trimix says, disrupt the really good regular riding we’ve got going.
Snobbish and cliquey? Not at all…