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What started out as me just being nice to a clan leader experiencing problems, has blossomed into a complete outpour of knowledge.
Naturally there are things that you will need to run a clan:
- A game (or game server) that your clan will frequently play on.
- A website for your clan members to visit.
- A web forum for your clan members to keep in touch
- Voice over Internet Protocol Chat Services, for your clan members to talk to each other on. (Ventrillo/Teamspeak)
I would suggest that if you're going to run a successful clan, you put in a little investment to start it up. Internet web-sites aren't expensive nowadays, and Ventrillo/Teamspeak are peanuts per month. For BF2, running a clan server is very expensive; but if you're sharing the expense among friends; what first seemed like triple digits on the pocket book, soon becomes double digits. Maybe when your clan grows large enough, it'll even reach the single digits.
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Now... I realize that this information will not help the experienced clan-leaders; however, I also realize that there are plenty of struggling clans out there who could use a little helping hand to guide them in the right direction.
I would also love to consider these ideas to be 'guidelines' for leaders to follow to ensure their clan's success; but really, these are just tips that should give people ideas on how to improve their community.
Please note that this is an ever-evolving guide; so if there are any questions that aren't answered here in this guide; feel free to ask me over the Private Messages service, or simply post here in this thread. I will add a Q&A section at the end of this post, and I will give full credit for the question to the person who asked the question.
If any corrections are needed, also feel free to send me a Private Message, or simply post here in this thread. I will make the correction, and once more give full credit to the person who provided the right information.
So without further delay; here come the ideas, split up into various topics to make it easier to read.
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General Fun:
- Perhaps you could set a specific time/day for everybody in your clan to get on, play BF2/Other Game, and just generally mess around and have fun. It would encourage your clan-mates to play together, and to fraternize among one-another. It is important that the people in your community become acquainted at the very least.
- Organize real-life meetings for some of the local clan members. Post pictures of the event on the clan web-site. Maybe you could involve the long-distance people by using Teamspeak/Ventrillo if it's a LAN-Party get-together. At least they get to fraternize too; even if it's not IRL.
- Encourage creativity among your members. If you have an artist in the clan; add a section to your web-site so he and other people can post their work! If you have a writer in the clan; add a section where he and other people can post their work! Communities have always bustled when a leader encouraged talent outside of what is necessary. Nobody said a gaming community had to be just about gaming; be unique, and expand into other horizons too.
- Never let things get to serious, even if you are a competitive clan. Don't let the over-zealous wannabe-fata|ity's leaving your clan because the rest of the team isn't up to snuff dissuade your clan's main and most important function of having fun.
- Always encourage activity under all circumstances; the biggest killer of a clan is inactivity among it's members. Always recruit new blood at all times; and remind yourself that even if you are a competitive clan; it's better to take a loss, and grow as a community; than to win and dwindle over time.
Competitive Play:
- Rotate players, even if they aren't your best players. If a person wants to play in a competitive match; let them! If you lose, so what? The players who sucked, can be encouraged to improve if you play it smart. For all you know; you could have a star player who is simply too inexperienced on your hands. Give him a little experience, and keep him/her trying for the win every-game.
- Don't let the over-confident/best players get too pushy. Make them feel special by giving them aesthetic bonuses, but never give them any actual power for merely being good at the game. This is a world of 6 billion people, so who cares if hes a 1 in a million player? There are 6000 other people out there playing at his level, if not better. You're here to nurture a community; not a Michael Vick. Only give a person power if they're promoting good sportsmanship, a high competitive game turnout, a high training time turnout, and plenty of activity on the forums/public server.
- Winning a match can be a big boon to the over-all morale of your clan. Don't let it get to their heads! I don't care if you're the #1 clan in the world; you won't win every game, so don't start thinking that you can! Celebrate a little bit, give out congratulations to the people who truly deserve it. Make some highlights of the match, and fraternize with your victorious buddies.
- If you manage to win, don't rub it in the noses of the clan that lost. If you come off as mature, and well organized; you may find yourself with a few new recruits from that clan. Make sure that the people in your clan know this, and punish people who act immature and make your clan look bad. They need to remember that your clan is a community; and wearing that clan tag, makes them representatives of that community.
- Losing a match can be a horrible demoralizer to a clan. So it's most important that you of all people don't get angry. Never insult a clan member who wasn't up to snuff, or wasn't able to show up. Never tell people "we need to do better, so we're stepping up on the training!" - Winning isn't important when it comes to running a successful clan.
- Having fun is important. So if you do manage to lose a competitive match, be positive! Talk about what went right, not what went wrong. Remind the players who excelled that the other team was simply better this time around, that way they don't go around feeling resentful to the rest of the clan for not playing up to snuff. Maybe invite some of the lingering people that remain online after the match to play a different game for a little while. Just do whatever it takes to cheer them up!
Donations:
- Allow clan mates who constantly donate to the server to feel special, by putting up cool looking, 'thank yous' on the main web-page of the clan.
- You could create fun contests for $5+ donators, using part of the money that was donated to the clan to buy the prize. This would encourage activity on your clan web-site, and ensure that you'll at least get a few regular donators. Make sure that it's easy to donate to your web-site though, allowing multiple forms of donating... Paypal alone isn't enough.
- If you're trying to encourage larger donations, you could offer people an extra 'entry' into the contest with every $5 donated. That is if your contest is randomly selected.
- An even better way to keep 'new people' around and feeling appreciated would be to separate the 'donation contest' between veterans, and recruits.
Website Activity:
- Make your forums accessable, beautiful and fun. Ugly, inactive, clunky forums never generate much activity even among huge clans.
- Encourage activity to your forums through your teamspeak; reminding them that any new information or guides made/found can only be found on your team's forums. Even better would be to allow an off topic forum for non-members to spam and talk with the clan members.
- Offer incentives to the clan members for posting on the forums. Giving neat gifts like customized signatures, avatars, statistics frames, etc. Would certainly encourage people to talk more when they aren't actively playing.
- Perhaps offer 'administrator' powers to clan members who have earned a certain amount of non-spammed posts on your forums. Say for instance; one active member earned 1000 posts on your forums. Then you would give him a 'trial basis' as a clan administrator. If they do a good job for the rest of the month with no viable complaints from the public that play on your server; upgrade them from 'trial administrator' to 'administrator recruit', admonishing the whole 'you're out on one screw up' idea, and giving them more leeway to keep the server clean in any way that they feel necessary.
Clan Server Activity:
- Offer forum bonuses for the players who reach the 'officer' ranks in BF2. (2nd Lieutenant for example.) Such as giving them a bonus avatar, or a aesthetic tag that denotes that they managed to reach this feat in game. This will encourage your clan members to play more.
- Allow clan mates who constantly promote server population (By idling, or goofing around while they wait for the server to fill.) to feel special, by putting up cool looking, 'thank yous' on the main web-page of the clan.
- Watch carefully for players who make a good impression on the server populace. Usually the ones who make friends with the regulars (non-clan members) on the server, will also make the best administrators for the server. Good people skills is the most important factor to a Good Administrator, of course, do this as a 'trial basis' just like with forum administrators. If there are any complaints from the public, make sure to act appropriately.
- Don't be afraid to give second, third, fourth or fifth chances to administrators who were previously taken off of the 'trial basis' due to problems during their previous reign. Even a problem offender can shape-up if he knows that if he follows the rules he can remain in power. Absolute power may corrupt; but limited power can also be a sobering experience.
Teamstacking:
- We have to remember that while the server belongs to us; it's the random people who come into the server at random that keep it alive. There are very few clans out there who can fully sustain a server by themselves, and even if they did; they wouldn't be able to teamstack! Try to avoid team-stacking if at all possible for the sake of better competition.
- To avoid team-stacking for both your clan, and visiting clans on your server, enact a forced team-swapping function on your server that randomly switches people around between the teams, at the end of a round. Of course, these people can switch back to the original team; but at the very least, your members will be more inclined to avoid team-stacking if they know that they're not being team-stacked against.
- Try to encourage your members to play together; but at the same time, encourage them to play against each other. Nothing improves a person's game-play like fierce competition from a friend. Especially if that friend shows the person what they did wrong when they lost... It really is a good way for your community to improve on itself. Team-stacking on the other-hand doesn't encourage your weaker players to play better; but instead, encourages them to leech off of the better clan-mates. This should be avoided at all costs.
Clan Rules:
- Obviously it is important to have rules. I would personally suggest that you put them up in a frequently visited area; such as the clan's main web-page. This way there is no excuse for the people who break the rules. After-all, it's mandatory and constantly encouraged that your guild is active on the web-site, right?
- Make the rules clear, and easy to understand. Leave a little note at the top that states, "All rules will be enforced, with no exceptions!"
- More information on enforcing the rules can be found in the section commenting on the removal of trouble-makers.
Clan Ranking:
- Never allow the bulk of your clan's interior core to be just your, 'closest friends.' This is extremely off-setting to the people who joined your clan over the internet, or to new recruits. If a person feels they have no chance to advance; they aren't going to stick around. I promise you that.
- Separate people into separate groups, but never treat them differently. If you're condescending to the new recruits; you may find that your clan has trouble keeping the new blood.
Co-leadership
- Choose your officers wisely. The best way to lose members is to appoint somebody who is not a good leader into a leadership position. All it takes is one condescending person to ruin the fun for everybody else - so you need to keep a close eye, and an open ear to every complaint stated about your co-leaders.
- Promote people often! No, they don't all have to be leaders, however they 'should' feel special when they do something special! Allow the recruits to realize that if they try, they will belong, and that the person at the top rung of the ladder will make sure of that!
Dealing with trouble makers:
- Issue warnings to every single person, regardless of their rank should they do something that doesn't mesh well with the clan community. If one clan-mate is insulting another clan-mate. Mediate, and then squelch the feud the moment it rears it's ugly head out. Remind both of them that your clan community does not harbor ill will among it's members; and that if the feud continues, they will both have to deal with the consequences regardless of who is right, or who is wrong.
- If they object, remind them of your position as the leader, and then remind them of the other people in the clan's community that have nothing to do with their feud. Remember that it is your job to be a leader for every single person in that community; and two people do not represent the entire clan, even if they somehow deluded themselves into thinking they do.
- Don't be afraid to demote, or remove somebody who is a problem. If somebody is making your clan look bad; that can result in a lower number of future recruits. This can be a real problem if you ever decide to move to a different game, which tends to result in losing some of your veteran clan-mates. New blood is too important to a clan's survival.
The unfortunate act of demotion:
- Not everybody is cut out to be a leader, and sometimes as the leader, you will be forced to make a tough choice. This is the choice that usually ends with in-fighting in the clan. Sadly, it's a choice that must be made sometimes. A bad leader should not lead; and you have to nip them in the bud, before they stem the growth of your clan's community.
- Be professional. Don't make this personal no matter the cost. Privately over ventrillo or teamspeak, talk to them calmly about each and every problem without naming names, in a concise and clear manner. Make sure they understand what is going on, before you demote them. This way they will be less likely to get angry at you for the demotion.
- If they do get angry; do not laugh, do not get angry back. Keep a level head, and be polite under any and all circumstances. Do not give him/her ammunition for revenge. Do not give him a reason to be angry beyond the demotion. If you do, it then becomes personal.
- If they decide to remain in the clan, do not treat them any differently than you used to. Do not under any circumstances allow any clan-member to insult, or mock the person who was demoted over the demotion. Keep the demoted officer as happy as possible during what may be the cross-roads between his staying, and his leaving the clan.
The unfortunate act of removal:
- Once more, you will be forced into the position of the bad guy for the sake of keeping your clan community clean, and growing. Make clear a no-excuses policy for poor attitudes, cheating or glitching, and be firm with any people who decide to partake in such vile actions. Be swift, and try to keep it as low-brow as possible. If it blows up into a feud, you will experienced problems down the road.
- If a problem does crop up down the road, never allow yourself to be painted as the villain in the eyes of your own community. Once more, you are required to be professional; and once more polite. Provide the proof of the removed former-clan mate's prior indiscretions and then point to the clearly posted rules on your web-site. Then firmly remind the remainder of the clan that these rules will be enforced for the sake of the clan community and it's reputation.
Dealing with dissenters:
- Don't panic and never give up. If you keep a level head, you'll realize that your clan's true future is never jeopardized unless you throw in the towel. The only time a clan truly dissipates, is if the leadership gives in.
- Be professional. Assume the position of a manager of human resources. Everyday you will be forced to make decisions that somebody will not like; and you have to remember that you can not please anybody. Your clan will eventually grow large enough to rival a small company in real life; so you have to think like a business manager. Take small hits; and minimize loss, by treating the remainder of your clan-mates well. Keep offering them small incentives to stay, and incentives to excel.
- If somebody is successfully poaching people from your clan; it may be because you've proven to be momentarily ineffective as a leader. Learn from it, and don't get frustrated! Nobody is a perfect leader from the start! It's a process that takes time to master.
- If anybody does leave for the new splinter clan, just be polite. Say goodbye to them in the nicest way possible, and remind them that if they ever find themselves without a clan in the future, that they'll always have a spot open for them in your clan. Remind them that there is no hard feelings. Why? Because whats true in real life, is as true in game life: Professionalism is the best way to keep mature personnel around.
- Better yet; invite your former members to keep playing/posting on the server, even though they've splintered from your clan. You may find yourself with a new sub-division clan in the future, and a possible merge/with experienced leadership included, later down the road. People will always follow a good leader; so be a good leader!
Unplanned Inactivity:
- For your officers, it is impertinent that you promote among the best in the lower ranks to take the place of the now inactive officers. Remind the new officers that this is a 'trial basis' and if they excel, they could very-well become permanent officers. If the once inactive officer comes back within a reasonable amount of time. (2-3 months.) - you can then relieve the replacement officer of duty, or... if he performed well enough; you could make his position permanent, gaining you yet another person you can trust! Score!
- For you (the leader) going inactive due to real life problems, it is exceptionally... no... EXTREMELY important that you assign a replacement that you KNOW will do a half-decent job as your replacement. This has to be somebody you truly trust. Even if they can't do half as good as you do, the mere fact that there is leadership still at the helm is enough to keep the new blood, and old blood around for however long your vacation is.
- When assigning a replacement, make sure to plaster it all over the website that this person will be in the leadership role for the duration of your inactivity. Be polite, be kind, say nothing but nice things about that person. It is important that the people in your clan know that you trust this person; because it gives them somebody they can look up to, even if that person isn't the greatest leader in the world. After-all, if you endorse him, he has to be a good guy, right?
- When returning, and the replacement did a great job, start giving them more duties if they enjoyed being in the leadership position. Make them an official co-leader, even if they weren't one of the original members! This will do wonders for you by relieving you of some of the leadership duties, and allowing you to come up with new and unique ways to expand on your community.
- If the previous replacement leader didn't enjoy being a leader, just allow them back into their original job assignment, and plaster all over the website how pleased you were with their effort. It's good to publicly show your appreciation of people who you know you can trust; because it means that they'll be your replacement again later down the road... even if they don't want to be.
Final Thoughts on Leadership:
It's not easy being a leader. It is easily the most stressful job on the internet; and sadly, even the best leader is not up to the challenge of making everybody happy.
Try to enjoy yourself in everything you do, and don't let problems get to you personally. If you get too involved with the issues that crop up over time, you may find yourself going M.I.A. on your clan...
They need you. Just like you need them... Thats what a community is. Please remember that as a leader, you are not the most important person in the community... You're just the most needed. Keep a level head, and a positive outlook...
Most importantly... Keep active.
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Additional Notes from other TBF2 Members:
Naturally there are things that you will need to run a clan:
- A game (or game server) that your clan will frequently play on.
- A website for your clan members to visit.
- A web forum for your clan members to keep in touch
- Voice over Internet Protocol Chat Services, for your clan members to talk to each other on. (Ventrillo/Teamspeak)
I would suggest that if you're going to run a successful clan, you put in a little investment to start it up. Internet web-sites aren't expensive nowadays, and Ventrillo/Teamspeak are peanuts per month. For BF2, running a clan server is very expensive; but if you're sharing the expense among friends; what first seemed like triple digits on the pocket book, soon becomes double digits. Maybe when your clan grows large enough, it'll even reach the single digits.
------
Now... I realize that this information will not help the experienced clan-leaders; however, I also realize that there are plenty of struggling clans out there who could use a little helping hand to guide them in the right direction.
I would also love to consider these ideas to be 'guidelines' for leaders to follow to ensure their clan's success; but really, these are just tips that should give people ideas on how to improve their community.
Please note that this is an ever-evolving guide; so if there are any questions that aren't answered here in this guide; feel free to ask me over the Private Messages service, or simply post here in this thread. I will add a Q&A section at the end of this post, and I will give full credit for the question to the person who asked the question.
If any corrections are needed, also feel free to send me a Private Message, or simply post here in this thread. I will make the correction, and once more give full credit to the person who provided the right information.
So without further delay; here come the ideas, split up into various topics to make it easier to read.
------
General Fun:
- Perhaps you could set a specific time/day for everybody in your clan to get on, play BF2/Other Game, and just generally mess around and have fun. It would encourage your clan-mates to play together, and to fraternize among one-another. It is important that the people in your community become acquainted at the very least.
- Organize real-life meetings for some of the local clan members. Post pictures of the event on the clan web-site. Maybe you could involve the long-distance people by using Teamspeak/Ventrillo if it's a LAN-Party get-together. At least they get to fraternize too; even if it's not IRL.
- Encourage creativity among your members. If you have an artist in the clan; add a section to your web-site so he and other people can post their work! If you have a writer in the clan; add a section where he and other people can post their work! Communities have always bustled when a leader encouraged talent outside of what is necessary. Nobody said a gaming community had to be just about gaming; be unique, and expand into other horizons too.
- Never let things get to serious, even if you are a competitive clan. Don't let the over-zealous wannabe-fata|ity's leaving your clan because the rest of the team isn't up to snuff dissuade your clan's main and most important function of having fun.
- Always encourage activity under all circumstances; the biggest killer of a clan is inactivity among it's members. Always recruit new blood at all times; and remind yourself that even if you are a competitive clan; it's better to take a loss, and grow as a community; than to win and dwindle over time.
Competitive Play:
- Rotate players, even if they aren't your best players. If a person wants to play in a competitive match; let them! If you lose, so what? The players who sucked, can be encouraged to improve if you play it smart. For all you know; you could have a star player who is simply too inexperienced on your hands. Give him a little experience, and keep him/her trying for the win every-game.
- Don't let the over-confident/best players get too pushy. Make them feel special by giving them aesthetic bonuses, but never give them any actual power for merely being good at the game. This is a world of 6 billion people, so who cares if hes a 1 in a million player? There are 6000 other people out there playing at his level, if not better. You're here to nurture a community; not a Michael Vick. Only give a person power if they're promoting good sportsmanship, a high competitive game turnout, a high training time turnout, and plenty of activity on the forums/public server.
- Winning a match can be a big boon to the over-all morale of your clan. Don't let it get to their heads! I don't care if you're the #1 clan in the world; you won't win every game, so don't start thinking that you can! Celebrate a little bit, give out congratulations to the people who truly deserve it. Make some highlights of the match, and fraternize with your victorious buddies.
- If you manage to win, don't rub it in the noses of the clan that lost. If you come off as mature, and well organized; you may find yourself with a few new recruits from that clan. Make sure that the people in your clan know this, and punish people who act immature and make your clan look bad. They need to remember that your clan is a community; and wearing that clan tag, makes them representatives of that community.
- Losing a match can be a horrible demoralizer to a clan. So it's most important that you of all people don't get angry. Never insult a clan member who wasn't up to snuff, or wasn't able to show up. Never tell people "we need to do better, so we're stepping up on the training!" - Winning isn't important when it comes to running a successful clan.
- Having fun is important. So if you do manage to lose a competitive match, be positive! Talk about what went right, not what went wrong. Remind the players who excelled that the other team was simply better this time around, that way they don't go around feeling resentful to the rest of the clan for not playing up to snuff. Maybe invite some of the lingering people that remain online after the match to play a different game for a little while. Just do whatever it takes to cheer them up!
Donations:
- Allow clan mates who constantly donate to the server to feel special, by putting up cool looking, 'thank yous' on the main web-page of the clan.
- You could create fun contests for $5+ donators, using part of the money that was donated to the clan to buy the prize. This would encourage activity on your clan web-site, and ensure that you'll at least get a few regular donators. Make sure that it's easy to donate to your web-site though, allowing multiple forms of donating... Paypal alone isn't enough.
- If you're trying to encourage larger donations, you could offer people an extra 'entry' into the contest with every $5 donated. That is if your contest is randomly selected.
- An even better way to keep 'new people' around and feeling appreciated would be to separate the 'donation contest' between veterans, and recruits.
Website Activity:
- Make your forums accessable, beautiful and fun. Ugly, inactive, clunky forums never generate much activity even among huge clans.
- Encourage activity to your forums through your teamspeak; reminding them that any new information or guides made/found can only be found on your team's forums. Even better would be to allow an off topic forum for non-members to spam and talk with the clan members.
- Offer incentives to the clan members for posting on the forums. Giving neat gifts like customized signatures, avatars, statistics frames, etc. Would certainly encourage people to talk more when they aren't actively playing.
- Perhaps offer 'administrator' powers to clan members who have earned a certain amount of non-spammed posts on your forums. Say for instance; one active member earned 1000 posts on your forums. Then you would give him a 'trial basis' as a clan administrator. If they do a good job for the rest of the month with no viable complaints from the public that play on your server; upgrade them from 'trial administrator' to 'administrator recruit', admonishing the whole 'you're out on one screw up' idea, and giving them more leeway to keep the server clean in any way that they feel necessary.
Clan Server Activity:
- Offer forum bonuses for the players who reach the 'officer' ranks in BF2. (2nd Lieutenant for example.) Such as giving them a bonus avatar, or a aesthetic tag that denotes that they managed to reach this feat in game. This will encourage your clan members to play more.
- Allow clan mates who constantly promote server population (By idling, or goofing around while they wait for the server to fill.) to feel special, by putting up cool looking, 'thank yous' on the main web-page of the clan.
- Watch carefully for players who make a good impression on the server populace. Usually the ones who make friends with the regulars (non-clan members) on the server, will also make the best administrators for the server. Good people skills is the most important factor to a Good Administrator, of course, do this as a 'trial basis' just like with forum administrators. If there are any complaints from the public, make sure to act appropriately.
- Don't be afraid to give second, third, fourth or fifth chances to administrators who were previously taken off of the 'trial basis' due to problems during their previous reign. Even a problem offender can shape-up if he knows that if he follows the rules he can remain in power. Absolute power may corrupt; but limited power can also be a sobering experience.
Teamstacking:
- We have to remember that while the server belongs to us; it's the random people who come into the server at random that keep it alive. There are very few clans out there who can fully sustain a server by themselves, and even if they did; they wouldn't be able to teamstack! Try to avoid team-stacking if at all possible for the sake of better competition.
- To avoid team-stacking for both your clan, and visiting clans on your server, enact a forced team-swapping function on your server that randomly switches people around between the teams, at the end of a round. Of course, these people can switch back to the original team; but at the very least, your members will be more inclined to avoid team-stacking if they know that they're not being team-stacked against.
- Try to encourage your members to play together; but at the same time, encourage them to play against each other. Nothing improves a person's game-play like fierce competition from a friend. Especially if that friend shows the person what they did wrong when they lost... It really is a good way for your community to improve on itself. Team-stacking on the other-hand doesn't encourage your weaker players to play better; but instead, encourages them to leech off of the better clan-mates. This should be avoided at all costs.
Clan Rules:
- Obviously it is important to have rules. I would personally suggest that you put them up in a frequently visited area; such as the clan's main web-page. This way there is no excuse for the people who break the rules. After-all, it's mandatory and constantly encouraged that your guild is active on the web-site, right?
- Make the rules clear, and easy to understand. Leave a little note at the top that states, "All rules will be enforced, with no exceptions!"
- More information on enforcing the rules can be found in the section commenting on the removal of trouble-makers.
Clan Ranking:
- Never allow the bulk of your clan's interior core to be just your, 'closest friends.' This is extremely off-setting to the people who joined your clan over the internet, or to new recruits. If a person feels they have no chance to advance; they aren't going to stick around. I promise you that.
- Separate people into separate groups, but never treat them differently. If you're condescending to the new recruits; you may find that your clan has trouble keeping the new blood.
Co-leadership
- Choose your officers wisely. The best way to lose members is to appoint somebody who is not a good leader into a leadership position. All it takes is one condescending person to ruin the fun for everybody else - so you need to keep a close eye, and an open ear to every complaint stated about your co-leaders.
- Promote people often! No, they don't all have to be leaders, however they 'should' feel special when they do something special! Allow the recruits to realize that if they try, they will belong, and that the person at the top rung of the ladder will make sure of that!
Dealing with trouble makers:
- Issue warnings to every single person, regardless of their rank should they do something that doesn't mesh well with the clan community. If one clan-mate is insulting another clan-mate. Mediate, and then squelch the feud the moment it rears it's ugly head out. Remind both of them that your clan community does not harbor ill will among it's members; and that if the feud continues, they will both have to deal with the consequences regardless of who is right, or who is wrong.
- If they object, remind them of your position as the leader, and then remind them of the other people in the clan's community that have nothing to do with their feud. Remember that it is your job to be a leader for every single person in that community; and two people do not represent the entire clan, even if they somehow deluded themselves into thinking they do.
- Don't be afraid to demote, or remove somebody who is a problem. If somebody is making your clan look bad; that can result in a lower number of future recruits. This can be a real problem if you ever decide to move to a different game, which tends to result in losing some of your veteran clan-mates. New blood is too important to a clan's survival.
The unfortunate act of demotion:
- Not everybody is cut out to be a leader, and sometimes as the leader, you will be forced to make a tough choice. This is the choice that usually ends with in-fighting in the clan. Sadly, it's a choice that must be made sometimes. A bad leader should not lead; and you have to nip them in the bud, before they stem the growth of your clan's community.
- Be professional. Don't make this personal no matter the cost. Privately over ventrillo or teamspeak, talk to them calmly about each and every problem without naming names, in a concise and clear manner. Make sure they understand what is going on, before you demote them. This way they will be less likely to get angry at you for the demotion.
- If they do get angry; do not laugh, do not get angry back. Keep a level head, and be polite under any and all circumstances. Do not give him/her ammunition for revenge. Do not give him a reason to be angry beyond the demotion. If you do, it then becomes personal.
- If they decide to remain in the clan, do not treat them any differently than you used to. Do not under any circumstances allow any clan-member to insult, or mock the person who was demoted over the demotion. Keep the demoted officer as happy as possible during what may be the cross-roads between his staying, and his leaving the clan.
The unfortunate act of removal:
- Once more, you will be forced into the position of the bad guy for the sake of keeping your clan community clean, and growing. Make clear a no-excuses policy for poor attitudes, cheating or glitching, and be firm with any people who decide to partake in such vile actions. Be swift, and try to keep it as low-brow as possible. If it blows up into a feud, you will experienced problems down the road.
- If a problem does crop up down the road, never allow yourself to be painted as the villain in the eyes of your own community. Once more, you are required to be professional; and once more polite. Provide the proof of the removed former-clan mate's prior indiscretions and then point to the clearly posted rules on your web-site. Then firmly remind the remainder of the clan that these rules will be enforced for the sake of the clan community and it's reputation.
Dealing with dissenters:
- Don't panic and never give up. If you keep a level head, you'll realize that your clan's true future is never jeopardized unless you throw in the towel. The only time a clan truly dissipates, is if the leadership gives in.
- Be professional. Assume the position of a manager of human resources. Everyday you will be forced to make decisions that somebody will not like; and you have to remember that you can not please anybody. Your clan will eventually grow large enough to rival a small company in real life; so you have to think like a business manager. Take small hits; and minimize loss, by treating the remainder of your clan-mates well. Keep offering them small incentives to stay, and incentives to excel.
- If somebody is successfully poaching people from your clan; it may be because you've proven to be momentarily ineffective as a leader. Learn from it, and don't get frustrated! Nobody is a perfect leader from the start! It's a process that takes time to master.
- If anybody does leave for the new splinter clan, just be polite. Say goodbye to them in the nicest way possible, and remind them that if they ever find themselves without a clan in the future, that they'll always have a spot open for them in your clan. Remind them that there is no hard feelings. Why? Because whats true in real life, is as true in game life: Professionalism is the best way to keep mature personnel around.
- Better yet; invite your former members to keep playing/posting on the server, even though they've splintered from your clan. You may find yourself with a new sub-division clan in the future, and a possible merge/with experienced leadership included, later down the road. People will always follow a good leader; so be a good leader!
Unplanned Inactivity:
- For your officers, it is impertinent that you promote among the best in the lower ranks to take the place of the now inactive officers. Remind the new officers that this is a 'trial basis' and if they excel, they could very-well become permanent officers. If the once inactive officer comes back within a reasonable amount of time. (2-3 months.) - you can then relieve the replacement officer of duty, or... if he performed well enough; you could make his position permanent, gaining you yet another person you can trust! Score!
- For you (the leader) going inactive due to real life problems, it is exceptionally... no... EXTREMELY important that you assign a replacement that you KNOW will do a half-decent job as your replacement. This has to be somebody you truly trust. Even if they can't do half as good as you do, the mere fact that there is leadership still at the helm is enough to keep the new blood, and old blood around for however long your vacation is.
- When assigning a replacement, make sure to plaster it all over the website that this person will be in the leadership role for the duration of your inactivity. Be polite, be kind, say nothing but nice things about that person. It is important that the people in your clan know that you trust this person; because it gives them somebody they can look up to, even if that person isn't the greatest leader in the world. After-all, if you endorse him, he has to be a good guy, right?
- When returning, and the replacement did a great job, start giving them more duties if they enjoyed being in the leadership position. Make them an official co-leader, even if they weren't one of the original members! This will do wonders for you by relieving you of some of the leadership duties, and allowing you to come up with new and unique ways to expand on your community.
- If the previous replacement leader didn't enjoy being a leader, just allow them back into their original job assignment, and plaster all over the website how pleased you were with their effort. It's good to publicly show your appreciation of people who you know you can trust; because it means that they'll be your replacement again later down the road... even if they don't want to be.
Final Thoughts on Leadership:
It's not easy being a leader. It is easily the most stressful job on the internet; and sadly, even the best leader is not up to the challenge of making everybody happy.
Try to enjoy yourself in everything you do, and don't let problems get to you personally. If you get too involved with the issues that crop up over time, you may find yourself going M.I.A. on your clan...
They need you. Just like you need them... Thats what a community is. Please remember that as a leader, you are not the most important person in the community... You're just the most needed. Keep a level head, and a positive outlook...
Most importantly... Keep active.
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Additional Notes from other TBF2 Members:
Originally posted by Chris_Redfield
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Originally posted by Anni-kin
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