I. The
LEADER is a power hungry ego maniac:
-If- you are
starting a clan to "simply to be IN-charge"
of it, I would suggest not bothering starting
a clan at all. Because, that is the #1 reason
so many clans DIE, it's their leader started
the clan, simply to be "IN CHARGE"
of 'a clan' and to boss people. The best
clans are ran by people that actually enjoy
helping other people. Immature ego maniacs
usually have no idea how much work is
involved with running a "SUCCESSFUL"
clan, that LAST any amount of time. If you
have a "BAD", UNFAIR", "LAZY",
or "power hungry" leader, a CLAN
WILL DIE.
To avoid this:
A clan should be ran by several people that SHARE the Work -AND- the SHARE the Authority AND ENJOY helping other people.
II.
Too many of your MEMBERS are whinny lazy
brats:
If you have a
lot of immature and lazy members that demand
everything from you, but NEVER help back (or
help back very little), eventually YOU will
get tired of doing ALL (or almost all) of the
work, THEN THE CLAN WILL DIE.
To avoid this:
Make sure EVERYone understands that they
absolutely must help their clan weekly by
giving 10% of their online gaming time BACK
to their clan (they can help with:
recruitment, writing web pages, run server
searches, run practices and events, help
other members, help members on the clan message
board, organize nightly games, participate,
etc). Make sure that they all understand that
a clan is "not a magical refrigerator"
on the internet. The people that help MORE,
should get MORE authority (or "say")
in the clan. Please be fair and give the
"workers" their "EARNED
AUTHORITY".
Make sure EVERYone knows "what is
expected OUT of them" and "what to
expect FROM the clan", -BEFORE- they
join your clan. Basically, each member should
have a "clan job".
III.
You let a troublemaker into the clan:
NEVER let
a person into your clan JUST because he is a
"very good player" or has a server.
EVERY person has to be "friendly person"
or you do NOT want them. You DO -NOT-
WANT JERKS in your clan. Sometimes,
some of the best players and server owners (not
all), are the most arrogant self-centered
"#$%^s" on the planet, and all they
ever do, is think about their OWN scores, and
not about the clan. A troublemaker will go on
to KILL a clan, because of their rude UN-compromising
behavior, "lack of team work", and
nasty attitude. Fun and FRIENDS, are ALWAYS more
important then winning.
It's better to play by yourself, then be in a
clan that is a huge collection of
troublemaking morons.
To avoid this:
Simply talk to the people before you let them
in your clan. Invite them on to a Roger Wilco
channel for an 'interview' to see what they
want out of a clan. You can tell them "what
will be expected out of them" and "what
to expect from your clan". Its always a
lot easier to NOT let a troublemaker in, then
it is to kick him/her out. You should give
TRY OUTS to new guys, and screen the jerks.
Note, not all great players or server
operators are bad people, some are actually
some of the nicest people in the World.
IV. 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 a long, people have to
compromise once and a while. Any time you get
a bunch of humans together, there is going to
be "DISAGREEMENTS". If even loving
"FAMILIES" have fights, you can
guarantee that a clan, if it lives long
enough and grows, will have a fight.
To avoid this:
Do NOT let a fight grow or "EXPLODE"
and kill your clan. If a fight starts between
2 people, suggest that THOSE 2 people (and a
moderator) get on a RW channel and discuss it
face to face, do not start a flame war on the
message board. If the 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, of if
needed 3 weeks. Sometimes simply saying "LET's just all
get in a game and play" will stop the fighting and SAVE
your clan, remember that. By having monthly
clan meetings, misunderstandings can usually
be avoided. Communication between the
Leaders, and between the members and Leaders
is very important. I would recommend having
scheduled monthly clan meetings for the clan.
It helps prevent misunderstandings, and is
also a good time to discuss issues and for
Members to offer new ideas too. Also don't
forget to reward the clan's hard workers and
keep them happy and give them "earned
authority". It is EVERY MEMBERS' clan,
btw, not just the Leaders' clan. Everyone
should work a little, 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.
V. You
FAILED to recruit any new members:
""A
clan is like a sack of sand with a hole in at
the bottom that is slowly losing it's
contents.""
People have
and will ALWAYs LEAVE clans, no matter how
good they are.
We have had
people leave our clan for just about any
reason you can think about. We have had : a
member that went to to jail, a member had his
Wife yell at him to "Turn off the
computer or she would leave him", people
in serious auto accidents, people loose their
jobs and not able to pay their ISP, people
have their phone disconnected for not paying,
one guy had his phone disconnected for 3 weeks
because of a construction backhoe, people
bored with games, people doing poorly in
school, people going away and starting
college, people moving, misunderstandings,
and of course FIGHTS.
To avoid this:
You have to CONTINUALLY RECRUIT new QUALITY
members if your clan is to survive. Make sure
several LOYAL people in the clan spend a few hours
recruiting in open forums and in games each
week. Be careful NOT to spam messages anywhere.
Make someone responsible for this section of
the clan, make sure that they are 100% loyal
to your clan.
VI. UN-loyal
"Clan-Hoppers", backstabbers, and
"Quit-a-thons":
One out of
many ....."E Pluribus Unum".
Making a clan
is the EASY part, holding a clan together is
the HARD part.
Un-loyal,
bottom feeding, blood sucking, leeching
"backstabbers", that go on to
instigate "mutinies" or "quit-a-thons"
can not be allowed around your clan at any
time. I have seen backstabbers create fights,
simply so that they could recruit members
away from the current clan once people
started to quit. These "split-off clans"
always go on to be "flop-clans".
The reason is: people that are un-loyal to
your clan will only be un-loyal to the "split-off"
clan, mutineers NEVER stick together very
long, NEVER!.
"Clan-hoppers"
are guys that join a clan, then quit it, then
join another clan, then quit it, then join
another clan, then quit it, etc, etc. "Clan-hoppers"
never do any work and do not have any
loyalty. "Clan-hoppers" are self-centered
and only think of themselves. Usually they
are whiners too. They seldom stay in a clan
for more then 3 weeks. Sometimes they join
several clans at one time and are not loyal
to any of them.
To avoid this:
If someone quits your clan, they can NOT
rejoin. It should take all the Council members to
let someone in your clan. It should take all
Council members to kick someone out of your
clan. This will make your clan stable and
prevent it from being too easy to get in. Do
not make your clan TOO easy to get into, that
way members will VALUE your clan's MEMBERSHIP.
You should give interviews to new guys, and
give TRY OUTS before making someone a member,
see, that's why running a "successful"
clan takes a lot of work ;-). Make getting
into your clan a special time that is valued.
Maybe have a "crowbar" initiation
ceremony (Half-Life TFC) when a new guys
passes their "TRY OUT" or gets
"Promoted". Get all the members
together and crowbar the new guy as you swear
him into your clan. Do not let a "clan-hopper"
in your clan, if someone says he has been in
16 clans, you do NOT want him in your clan,
he is a fickled "clan-hopper". If
someone is in another clan, they have ZERO
loyalty to your clan, do NOT let them hang
around your clan's message board or RW
channel. Telling the low-lifes "NO"
or "GO AWAY", is the job of the
COUNCIL Members. Be a STRONG and FAIR Leader
and everyone will respect you.
VII.
SOMEONE THINKING THE "CLAN" IS A
"GAME":
A "clan'
is not a "game". A Clan is made up
of REAL people with REAL feelings. You might
be looking at your monitor when you type or
talk to a player a thousand miles away on the
internet, but there actually is a REAL person
on the other end of that conversation, typing
and talking to you while looking at his
monitor, they 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 ran
as such. In a company, people show up at a
set time (8am) and stay for a set amount of
time (8 hours) and get paid. The company
charges for it's services. So a company is
not much like a "GLOBAL clan", that
is ran 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. In the military and a
Country, you can execute people if they mess
up really badly, need I say more.
On the other
hand "Half-life" and "StarCraft"
and "EverQuest" ARE "GAMES".
They are simply a bunch of computer software
code written to form a software program, that
follows a set of rules. They are JUST a
"game".
To avoid this:
Act civil to people and respect all people,
if they will let you. Play games for fun, but
dont "play with people" by
mistreating them.
IX.
"Net-Mosquitoes" harassing
and wasting too much time:
"Net-mosquitoes"
are troublemaking morons that cause trouble
simply to cause trouble. They have NO-life
and have been known to hound clans that they
could not get in or were kicked out of, for
months sometimes. We had a net-mosquito that
harassed our clan for 15 months after he
left our clan. "Net-Mosquitoes"
waste their life trying to ruin others' fun.
They are a waste of life, a waste of time, a
waste of fun, don't let them waste yours.
To handle this:
Report any harassment to the net-mosquito's
ISP in a polite and documented email
complaint. If a troublemaker does anything
illegal to one of your members, like sending
a virus or hacking, report the net-mosquito
to his local police. If the net-mosquito just
does one thing, simply ignore the buffoon and
let him get his "attention" from
his momma.
X. TOO
MUCH TIME WAS WASTED ON THE CLAN WEB PAGE:
I NEVER saw a
clan die because of an ugly clan web page,
but I have seen a LOT of clans DIE because
their leaders spent WAY TOO much time working
on their clan web page, instead of using that
time recruiting, or practicing, or having
clan meetings to promoted good communication
in their clan.
A web page is
simply a TOOL, a "web page" is NOT
the clan. A clan is about the people, a web
page doesn't help you capture the flag, but
"CLAN MEMBERS" do. A "web page"
is simply a "pieces of paper on the
internet".
To avoid this:
Make a BASIC web page to hold your club for
the first 3 months, then, after 3+ months, if
your clan is still alive, worry about "dressing
up" the web page. Worry about a dot.com
later, if your clan survives 4+ months.
Clubs/ The Clan Leader's Bible
page #3/
