A clan is not a Game Poncho

[Napir]

A Clan Is Not A Game

A "clan" is not a "game." A clan is about people. Without people, there is no clan.
A true clan is not about "the game." Its about "the people" that play games together. This is the most important thing for our members to remember if our clan is to survive and have fun. If you enjoy helping friendly people and treat people fairly 100% of the time, you will likely find the camaraderie of being in a clan quite rewarding.



Most Common Reasons Clans Fail

1. The leader is a power hungry ego maniac:
The best clans are run by people that enjoy helping other people. Immature ego maniacs usually have no idea how much work is involved with running a clan. A clan with a bad, unfair, lazy, or power hungry leader will fail.

To avoid this: A clan should be run by several people that share the work and authority, and enjoy helping other people. Yes, there is work, and someone has to do it if the clan is going to grow and prosper. Clans are for having fun - yes, but this fact does not change the other hard fact that there is unfortunately still work to be done. With work comes responsibility and usually, with responsibility comes authority.

2. Too many members are whinny and lazy:

If the clan has a lot of immature and lazy members that demand everything, but never help back (or help very little), eventually the people doing the work will get tired of doing all (or almost all) of the work, and the clan will likely die.

To avoid this: Everyone should understand they must help the clan. They can help with recruitment, write web pages or provide content, run practices, help other members, help members on the clan message board, organize games, participate, etc.. A clan is not a magical refrigerator on the internet. The people that help more, should get more - authority (or "say") in the clan. We must be fair and give the "workers" their "earned authority." Everyone should know what is expected of them, and what to expect from the clan, BEFORE they join the clan. Basically, each member should have a "clan job." Some members will simply not have time to give as much as they would like to, so allowances and exceptions must be made as well to allow things to be a bit loosy-goosy in this area. The work still has to get done though.


3. We let a troublemaker into the clan:

We should never let someone into the clan just because he is a "very good player." Every person has to be a friendly person or we do not want them. We do not want jerks in our clan. Sometimes, some of the best players (not all), are the most arrogant and self-centered (an unfortunate natural progression), and their primary focus is all about their own scores, the low scores of others or center only around winning, and not about the clan. Here's a thought: Do you honestly believe that a single player can be markedly better than the rest of the clan members over a long period of time for no reason at all? Ask yourself what they might know that they are not sharing with other clan members? A troublemaker will go on to kill a clan over time because of their rude uncompromising behavior, lack of team work, and attitude. Fun and friends are always more important than winning. It's better to play by yourself, than be in a clan that is a collection of troublemakers.

To avoid this: We must talk to the people before we let them in our clan. Invite them on to TeamSpeak for an interview to see what they want out of a clan. Tell them what will be expected out of them and what to expect from our clan. Its a lot easier to not let a troublemaker in, than it is to kick them out. We should give Try-outs to new guys, and screen the jerks. Note: Not all great players are bad people. Some are actually some of the nicest people in the World; this is a generalization.


4. A fight starts, that grows bigger and BIGGER:

No one is perfect; therefore, everyone must compromise from time to time. If any group of people are to get along, people have to compromise once in a while. Any time you get a bunch of humans together, there is going to be disagreements. Even loving families have fights, so you can guarantee that a clan, if it lives long enough and grows, will have a fight.

To avoid this: We can not let a fight grow or explode and damage or kill the clan. If a fight starts between two people, suggest the two people (and maybe a moderator) get on a separate TeamSpeak channel and discuss it face to face. In fact, one of the quickest ways to start a fight can be to bring up a possibly touchy issue with another member in front of all the other members. Public humiliation and embarrassment will hurt feelings and inflame even serene tempered individuals, and walla - you've got a fight. Touchy issues should be dealt with one on one on a separate channel in the first place. If a fight is getting really bad, suggest to everyone fighting, to just take a break and cool off for a couple of hours, a couple of days, or if needed - a week. Sometimes, simply saying "lets just all get in a game and play" will stop the fighting and save the clan; remember that. Communication between the Leaders, and between the members and Leaders is very important. Scheduled monthly clan meetings can go a long way. It will help prevent misunderstandings, and is also a good time to discuss issues and for members to offer new ideas. Also, we shouldn't forget to reward the clan's hard workers and keep them happy by rewarding them with "earned authority." It is every members' clan, btw, not just the leaders' clan. Everyone should work a little, and the ones that work the most should have the most authority or "say," but it is all the members' clan and everyone should recognize that.


5. We fail to recruit new members:

"A clan is like a sack of sand with a hole in the bottom that is slowly losing it's contents."

People will leave, no matter how good they are, we are, or the clan is; no matter what - it is just going to happen.

People will leave our clan for just about any reason you can think about.

To avoid this: We need to agree upon how many members we want to maintain in our clan and continually recruit new quality members except when we are over the agreed upon number, if our clan is to survive. Several loyal people in the clan should spend time recruiting in open forums and in games each week, being careful not to spam anywhere. Be very careful to ONLY recruit new members with high standards... bla, bla... yeah, yeah... how in the heck can you know? If there is the slightest question in our collective minds, don't do it; don't take them in. It is hard to turn down a recruit, especially an eager one, but it is many times harder to get them out once they are in. By the time we finally deal with an issue and get rid of a bad member, there will most likely be irreversible clan damage left in the the wake of their having been in the clan at all.


6. Un-loyal Clan-Hoppers, Backstabbers, and Quit-a-thons:

One out of many ....."E Pluribus Unum".

Making our clan was the easy part. Holding it together is the hard part, and it isn't going to just take care of itself.

Un-loyal, bottom feeding, blood sucking, leeching "backstabbers", that go on to instigate "mutinies" or "quit-a-thons" can not be allowed around our clan at any time. A popular means of creating a new clan or recruiting for another clan is to create a fight, especially with leaders, simply so they can recruit members away. Remember this logic: Split-off clans will most likely flop. The reason is people that are un-loyal to one clan will only be un-loyal to the next; mutineers by their very nature will not stick together - NEVER.

Clan-hoppers join a clan, then quit it, then join another clan, then quit it, then join another clan, then quit it, etc. Clan-hoppers rarely do any work and do not have any loyalty. Clan-hoppers are self-centered and only think of themselves. They are usually whiners too, and quite likely good players, or have a good server making it easier for them to Clan-hop.

To avoid this: If someone quits our clan, they should not be allowed to rejoin. It should take all the members to let someone in our clan or to kick someone out. This will make our clan stable and prevent it from being too easy to get in. We shouldn't make our clan too easy to get into. That way members will value our clan's membership. We should give interviews to new guys, and give Try-outs before making someone a member. Do not let a "clan-hopper" in our clan. If someone says he has been in a bunch of clans, we do not want them in our clan; he is a fickled "clan-hopper."

7. Someone thinking the Clan is a Game:

A clan is not a game. A Clan is made up of real people with real feelings. We might look at our monitor when we type or talk to a player a thousand miles away on the internet, but there is actually a real person on the other end of that conversation, typing and talking to us while looking at his monitor. We are both real people. Just because you can't touch them, does not mean they are not real, breathing people that should be treated with dignity and fairness, if possible. A clan is not a company, it's not a country, and it's not the military; it is a global internet clan and should be run as such. In a company, people show up at a set time, stay for a set amount of time, and get paid. The company charges for it's services, so a company is not much like a global clan, that is run for free, at times convenient for those that show up. A clan will never have this luxury, and so a clan will never be as efficient as a company.

To avoid this: Act civil to people and respect all people, if they will let you. Play games for fun, but don't play with people by mistreating them.

Thats al by Napir, my point play so much like u can but keep it fun.