So I was trying some spectral clustering to see how the forum separates into groups. Here I’ve clustered everyone into three groups based entirely on their likes. Roughly speaking, the image below plots users according their likes. If you want to know the mathematical details, here is the wikipedia article.
There are three groups. The purple group encompasses most of the users. Contrary to what @zarapochka believes, she is not an “other” and belongs to this group. If I had to guess, the yellow group corresponds to users who have political disagreements with the purple group while the cyan group participates in more discussion outside of politics. The most extreme point of the yellow group is @monetary_expert and the most extreme point of the cyan group is @Pauwl. Both of these users have a lot of likes within their groups.
Cluster Purple
StrontiumDog
bigt2k4
baddis
TheHip41
prana
ViridianDreams
grue
Jbrow
AllTheCheese
oneeyedtripping
Fossilkid93
SirOsis
dlk9s
LFS
kre8tive
wirelessgrinder
All-InFlynn
JackBando
geewhysee
WichitaDM
nobody
TheNewT50
churchill
jmakin
clovis8
Riverman
Spinetta
kerowo
tomrh3
ripdog
jman220
joltinjake
Catastrophe
Koss
skydiver8
Marksman
TimBuktuuf
Goebs80
Sogge
spidercrab
StimAbuser
simplicitus
IrishRunner
poopypants
00cooler00
Rivaldo
sriracha
Twist
Boardgamer
MrWookie
■■■■■■■■■■■
ggoreo
Ikioi
R.C
Trolly
mosdef
Deuce
SensiblePerson
MattyLice
CanadaMatt3004
LongtimeLurker
RiskyFlush
NhlNut
Soulman
goofyballer
jalfrezi
Joog
Devil
eyebooger
Coasterbrad
Fatboy8
Dutch101
chupacabre
Aofrantic
MichaelDavis
SenorKeeed
suzzer99
Thin_Slicing
Hired_Goons
gman42
TheDuker
hey_you
Nicholasp27
Rugby
jwax13
MikeLikesOrgies
ChrisV
LouisCyphre
ThisGuy
ElSapo
bobman0330
Lostrich
JohnnyTruant
mukdukaluk
TrueNorth32
anon
smrk4
nunnehi
DodgerIrish
King_of_NY
zarapochka
FuncrusherPlus
MimosaDef
fidgetUK
beetlejuice
Chippa58
otatop
iron81
MaxCut
Smacc_25
lovemuffin
Supwithbates
DrChesspain
alex
d2_e4
dreamcrusher28
marty
oscark
Namath
superuberbob
Lawnmower_Man
Tilted
boredsocial
Sabo
la2sb91
Tiptopdaddy
wiper
Kep
Chuckleslovakian
whosnext
olink
feedthabeast
PocketChads
LodenPants
MysteryConman
Danspartan
zikzak
Cluster Cyan
Yuv
mjiggy
seities
miliboo
SwankyWilder
Rexx
Pauwl
cassette
pyatnitski
Cluster Yellow
microbet
hokie
RegretS
6ix
MakeHaste
monetary_expert
catfacemeowmers
tabbaker
meb
jerry
MasterofthePwn
anachronistic
nonfiction
■■■■■■■
eeAWW
Crunchyblack
vaya1
dogsballs
Watevs
imjosh
The names are ordered in how close they are to the center of their respective group.
Unfortunately this doesn’t include all users so people like @Heritagenothate are not included because they have too few likes.