Clan Webmasters Blog » General

Recruiting New Members

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:05:25 +0000

As a clan leader, it is your responsibility to take care of recruiting new members. It is okay to assign responsibility to other members who want to help, but if your clan is falling because of immature members or lack of recruits, it is ultimately the leader’s responsibility, not the members’. A clan is like a sack of potatoes with a hole in the bag. You’ll ALWAYS be losing members. One of the most stressful things to deal with is mass leavings. I’ll write an article on dealing with this later.

Once your clan is established with at least ten members, I suggest introducing a system for trying out new members. Recruiting systems will vary from game to game, but an effective way of doing so is to go into public servers wearing your clan tags, and just have fun. People will see a well organized squad or team, and depending on the game, will see or hear you having fun and will usually ask for your clan website. I would suggest NOT advertising your website unless someone asks. Make sure you check the server rules; many clan servers will have rules against advertising. Make sure you are aware of recruitments. You don’t want your members promoting your clan the wrong way. It can be extremely hard to reverse. I have seen clan battles get way out of hand over simple issue like this.

Make sure you make a form beforehand. You can always modify this form later, but you want to make sure you ask for basic details, including: name, age, Email, MSN address, Facebook account, etc. And make sure they agree to a basic agreement saying they will act maturely, etc. This doesn’t have to be complicated. You can simply make a sticky topic in your forum and make sure that all new posts will follow the outlined format (similar to my community helper applications forum).

Make sure you get users to play on your servers before offering to recruit them. If you don’t recognize a username, put that tryout on hold until that person has played with you. I have found that often younger kids will apply without even playing on a server just so they can say they are in a clan. These situations never have happy endings. They usually end up with aggravated clan members and a disappointed recruit. I have absolutely nothing against recruiting young kids, I would just be extra careful during their tryouts. I would make sure they understand that your clan expects their members to act mature, etc.

Once you feel you have a handle of the member’s attitude, feel free to direct the recruit to your forum or recruitment page. Once you’ve approved the application, arrange a tryout date, and make sure the whole clan gets an opportunity to have a say in the decision.

10 Tips for Gaming Clans

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:30:50 +0000

TIP 1:

Before starting your clan, make sure you’ll be able to get online 4-5 times a week, and that you’ll be willing to help out players.

TIP 2:

Try joining a clan before starting your own. You should have some experience in a clan before starting one. Also, make sure the game needs another clan; if not, you could try joining a new or existing clan and become a co-leader.

TIP 3:

Try to start a clan with other people, preferably local friends. It’s almost impossible to start a clan alone.

TIP 4:

Keep one leader and an odd number of co-leaders for voting purposes.

TIP 5:

Don’t be too demanding of your members. Clans are for fun. A demanding clan leader is never fun to play with.

TIP 6:

Think of your clan as a group of friends, rather than a competitive team (unless you’re going to be a competitive gaming team). Clans are supposed to be people you can always play with and have fun with. Don’t try to push your members to be more than they want to be.

TIP 7:

Leadership is everything. A power trip is the NUMBER ONE reason clans fail. Having said that, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Be careful who you promote.

TIP 8:

Keep the clan active. Put an arcade on your website, try to form alliances with other clans, arrange clan battles and scrims. Try to get the entire clan involved when trying out new members. Make recruiting a clan effort. Let everyone have a chance to play with the new member. PROMOTE MEMBERS REGULARLY. Everyone likes the feeling of accomplishing a new level. Give your dedicated members new ranks regularly.

TIP 9:

Recruit, recruit, recruit. By nature, a clan is always losing members. Don’t let your expectations get too high. Keep recruiting. Make sure not to spam on other clan servers, try to be friendly to guests on your servers, and encourage them to come back.

TIP 10:

Making a clan is making friends. Always remember that a clan is a community, not a game. Please remember that clan members are real people. Treat them like they want to be treated.

Forum Solutions for Your Clan.

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:09:51 +0000

A forum is a must have for clan websites. A forum is a place to post news, keep members in touch, and announce server issues. There are two ways you can get a forum on your clan website. You can either host the script yourself on your own hosting, by setting up a MYSQL database, uploading the files, and making the changes you desire, or you can set up a free forum on another website, and have that linked to your clan website. Although both options are good, I would recommend hosting the forum yourself. It is a little more work, but then you are in full control of your website. And you get to learn a little about how the web works.

Free Forum Hosts:

http://www.freeforums.org
http://www.forumer.com

These are just a few of literally thousands of free forum hosts. If your interested in hosting your forum yourself, keep reading.

To host the forum yourself, you need to download some software, This is a short list of some of the most popular Forum Software:
1.) Vbulletin – $180.00

a. Thousands of mods/hacks
b. Thousands of themes
c. Extremely popular, so lots of support

2.) IPB – $149.99 – (My Personal favourite)

a. Very clean
b. Better looking stock
c. Some extra standard features

3.) PHPBB – FREE

a. Well supported
b. Offers all of the stuff the big boys offer
c. Due to it being free, I would suggest you keep it updated with the lastest patches

4.) SMF – FREE

a. Very basic forum
b. Great for learning about web scripts
c. Not as popular as phpbb, therefor less mods/skins

5.) Vanilla Forum – FREE

a. Probably to simple, but worth checking out
b. Offers a very clean, unique style

Personally, I think forum choice is a matter of personal preference. They all do the same basic thing, and I have never heard a regular clan member complain about the software itself (I have heard complain about the mods sure). If you choose a free forum, MAKE SURE to keep it up to date, and remember that being free, no one is required to give you support.

All of the forum software above will require a specific version of PHP (your website host can provide you with that) and a MYSQL database (almost all hosts have that) You will also need to have an FTP program to upload the files and some sort of program to edit them (not required, but nice to have). I will be writing an article on installation of these boards very soon.