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Grey's Clanagement Guide & How To Use The Clan Section

Discussion in 'Clans & Teams' started by GreyWolf64, Jul 31, 2014.

Grey's Clanagement Guide & How To Use The Clan Section
  1. Von_Seckendorff Platinum

    XP:
    42,255xp




    GUILD MANAGEMENT GUIDE - SECTION I


    Lately, I've been seeing more and more spam in the "Clans and Teams" section advertising for guilds and clans that are never tended to, never take off, and are never active. Sometimes these guilds are disbanded because the members are too inactive to help keep the guild alive, and other times, the guild leader doesn't show the proper maintenance to his/her guild that s/he should to keep it running. With the wipe of the Clans and Teams section coming up very soon, I think we should all step back and think before posting an application in that section.


    At this point, you are probably thinking "I can support my clan, why should I listen to this jerk?!" and I can fully understand that. However, are you certain you're willing and able to put in the amount of dedication and boring work that your clan needs to survive out there amongst all the others? Managing a guild is not a cakewalk. There will be good days, there will be bad days. There will be triumphs and there will be disappointments; but most of all, there will be drama.


    Learning to separate yourself from clan-side drama is very important to being an effective leader. Learn to break apart arguments without getting involved, and more importantly, an effective leader must never side with one of his members over another one. In a guild, it's either one person makes the decisions, or everyone does. You can run a tyrannical despotism in your guild, ensuring your complete power over everyone else, or you can let the guild participate in something more democratic, letting them all vote on major decisions that will affect the outcome of guild life.




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    Let's start with brainstorming about your future clan. Think about these point before you know what you want to post, or your clan will quickly fall apart around you. This is used as a bit of a foundation for your guild, and how well you organize it decides whether or not your guild is built on sand or if it's built on concrete.

    What gamemodes do you want your clan to play? Do you want your members exclusive to a particular gamemode like Annihilation or MineZ, or do you want to invest in the broad range of gamemodes that Shotbow has to offer? Some clans even play outside of Shotbow together, and even outside of Minecraft!

    Thinking about what you want your guild to do will save you tons of trouble in your future management position. If you cannonball into a leadership position where everyone looks to you for directions and support, and you don't know which way is up in your guild, things are going to fall apart pretty fast.

    Do you want a huge gaming guild or a small clan? Can you support 30-50 people in your guild? Do you have the time and the patience for it, or is your time to lead fragmented at best? A guild can't function without an active leadership, so ensure that you are 100% able and willing to put up with the hardships of leading a clan.




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    The next thing you should take into consideration is the ability for your clan to communicate effectively with itself; create a network of communication that you and your members can use to quickly contact each other. You may be content early on by using chains of Shotbow Network Private Messages to communicate, but after a while, you'll find that they won't suit your needs as your clan grows. Looking forward, you need to decide what you want to use as a communication method.


    • Using websites such as Wordpress, Blogger and Enjin, among others can help you organize a custom website or blog about your guild's doings.
    • If you have the commitment and the money, you can obtain your own Mumble or TeamSpeak3 server.
    • Using Skype with your guild as voice chat is all-around a very bad idea. Using skype risks your online safety as well as that of your guild members.
    • Numerous "Chatroom" websites are available for instant-messaging communications, which are very useful.
    • Using voice chat is key to co-ordinating events and meetings properly. Mumble and TeamSpeak3 work well.
    Once you've set up your little guild network (It could take up to two weeks to get everything functioning properly) is when you should look for recruitment possibilities. Walking blindly into the community of clans and guilds and trying to start a functioning guild from scratch will only get you annoyance, dejection and a sense of inferiority to some of the larger guilds out there. Once you have your network and you've brainstormed on what you want your guild to be like, you should start writing your application.



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    Once you've brainstormed ideas for your clan, set up your network of communication, and written your application (Don't post it yet!) you should flesh out your ideas for your guild. Do you want awards for members? Do you want a ranking system? Do you want to interact with other clans and guilds? Take an hour to brainstorm all of these ideas and write them all out on a notebook pad. Keeping a large checklist of work that you need to do for your guild (I've found) is an easy and usable way to keep up on your guild work, as well as allowing you to jot down any other ideas you may have for your clan.

    Add your features! Pull out your list of awards and ranks and add them in! Give incentive for those who get all the awards or a particular rank! Mix things up from time to time and keep things interesting! Using your head when managing your guild is the most important thing to do. As hard as it may seem, letting your feelings for your members or any bias you may have influence a major decision could flaw your judgement, so if something seems to overwhelming to decide at that very moment, take a step back and think for a while. Lay down in bed, listen to music, or write things out on paper. If it helps, keep a journal or a log of your interaction with your guild.



    Remember that the human mind is best stimulated when accomplishing mundane tasks.
    Go for a walk, read a book, browse the internet for a while.
    (Reading stories and listening to music has always helped me make big decisions logically)



    Once you've got all of your ideas on paper, it's time to think about your ranking chain. In a well-oiled guild, you will have a chain of command. Usually, you'll have one leader, perhaps two or three 'Co-Leaders' and the main body of your guild.

    Splitting a leadership position with someone else, giving them equal power and responsibility, may seem like a great idea at first. Less work for you, right? Wrong. Unless you are very skilled and have a close knit relationship with this person, leadership splitting can doom your guild before it even starts. You may tend to argue with your other half, or neglect decisions that you both need to make, or even dump more of your work onto them. As I said, it can be done if you know exactly what you're doing, but for now, it's best if you start a despotic guild with a single leadership. One person should get to make all the decisions.

    However, the leader's decision should always have balanced influence. Setting up a council of advisers and trusted 'givers of advice' to help you make your decisions is a great way to keep your nose in your guild's community and make the most logical choice. Sometimes, they'll reveal tragic shortfalls or even great improvements to ideas you present them. Though you sometimes may not like their opinions, they are there for a good reason.

    It's even smart to look for advice outside of your guild, even outside the internet. Confer to your trusted IRL friends to help you work through some challenges you may be facing; look to other clans for advice on how to run yours in a given situation, and (from personal experience) certain members of the Shotbow Staff know quite a bit about running and managing a guild, and they will always be there to help you figure out which path to take. Learn how to lead your guild before jumping in and trying to lead it yourself with no help. Gather a network of support from the internet, from your friends and from our glorious community. Make sure there's someone there to catch you if you fall, and someone there to help you back up.





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    Now that you've brainstormed your guild ideas, set up your communications network, written your application, and set up al of your major and minor ideas for your guild, the final step is to find a way to keep your guild active. Having a patient and calm demeanour when dealing with your members and other people is an essential for running a guild properly.

    To keep your guild away from the dangerous fringe of inactivity (I know it's terrible, I've been there) you need to set up what I like to call "Guild Events."

    Co-ordinate with your members to set up gaming events. Meet your members and play in particular games, on a particular date, and on a particular time. Finding a countdown clock on the internet is a great way to keep track of when your event is, and most importantly, format your events so everyone around the world (in different timezones) knows when the event is and if they can attend. f you have a large amount of EU members as well as US members, getting times where they can both play at the same time can be tricky, so host EU events and US events.







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    Are you ready to post your application? Do you know what you want from your guild and how you're going to get it? Are you going to make an effective leader?
    Do you have your networks of support and communication?
    Are you ready to get to work?




    Post that application.


    Remember, it may take a few days for applications to start rolling in, so be patient, and never shy away from denying an application that doesn't meet your requirements. Letting just anyone in is a bad idea. Remember, don't be mean when denying an application, but you've got to be firm and polite.
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  2. Von_Seckendorff Platinum

    XP:
    42,255xp
    GUILD MANAGEMENT GUIDE - SECTION II


    Now that you have down the basics for running a prosperous guild, it's time to take into consideration some of the features you can give your guild, as well as some of the things you can do with them. Guilds won't prosper if you're not offering regular meet-ups and interactions, and if your guild starts to become boring, members will leave. Having some things to separate your guild from the countless others is essential.



    While you make your application, make something flashy and bright, something with colour (not neon colours, please) and fancy bulleted lists is a great way to start. Later on, you may be able to add other things to your application to make it look better. Messing around with the font settings is a great way to make it look more professional, and having an insignia made (or making it yourself) gives points for effort.

    Once you've figured out what gamemodes that our guild will be playing, it's about time to decide what kind of guild you want to be. Now, there are plenty of unique types of guilds that you can create by some good logical thinking, but I've taken the liberty and compiled a few of them and listed their features below.


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    What kind of guild do you want to be? Do you want to be a happy tribe of healers with a focus on helping people, or do you want to be a roaring horde of bloody savages that rips apart anything and anyone for their loot? Maybe you want to go down a different path when playing with your guild.
    To keep your guild fully functional and interesting, you'll want to figure out how to make some unique event types. The most important rule for this is to know that your events aren't bound by how you're 'supposed' to play a game. Anything is on the table, as long as you and your guild are still following the network's rules while you're doing it. Taking a while to come up with these can be frustrating at times, but trust me, the unique event types are by far the most fun. I've also put together a short list of ideas that can start you off with unique events.









    These are all very basic, but are great for starting out. Letting your guild know that you mean business early on is best asserted by pumping out events that are quick, fun, and require little planning. Some large MineZ events (Meet at Anemos Sanctum to beat the dungeon, for example) require plenty of time for you and your guild to both gear up and get to Anemos Sanctum, so give your guild adequate warning when you're planning a large event like that.


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    Interacting with other clans is sometimes both fun and beneficial for your own guild, so know when to deal with other guilds! Do you have a rival guild? Someone to beat in challenges and rough up from time to time? Do you have allied guilds to help you in your events? Making friends (as well as enemies) is a great way to meet new players and interact with them. Building a clan from scratch sometimes requires the support of another successful guild. Make rivalry with other guilds, but don't intentionally try to anger them or insult them. This can lead to the compromised safety of your members if not dealt with in extreme moderation.




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    When you have all of your ducks in a row for building and operating your guild, it's time to start thinking ahead. The more information you can garner from outside sources (your friends, the Shotbow Staff, other guilds, me) early on, the better equipped you'll come into the wild world of guild management, and the better equipped you are, the easier it will be for you to raise your guild. Take advice from folks while you're creating your guild. Some popular choices would be:
    • Your Friends
    • The Internet
    • Certain Shotbow Staff
    • Other Guild Leaders
    • Me, of course!
    During guild management, knowledge is your sword and patience is your shield. A flimsy wooden shield won't protect against heavy blows, so being patient with your guild is absolutely essential. Rome wasn't built in a day, and your guild won't turn into the most successful guild on the network overnight. Walking into guild management with no real knowledge on the topic will soon bring about the failure of your guild, so be aware! Gather as much info as humanly possible before setting up your guild!
    That being said, there are some things you simply mustn't do when creating your guild. There are many things to avoid, but I've listed some of the most important ones.

    I've seen some nationality specific guilds which exist because they all speak the same language, as far as I can tell. There's nothing wrong with creating a guild with the intention of only letting in people who can understand a specific language, but if you're a guild who lets everyone in, limiting someone's chances in your guild based on only their nationality (country of origin) is a serious no-no.







    Once you have a larger guild, or if you're hurting for applications, it may be time to advertise your guild
    somehow. Find recruitment outlets, make sure your Forum Application isn't buried by a million others (But don't post it multiple times in a short period, or it may be removed altogether!) and look for unique ways for getting your guild out there. Helping people in game, then stating that you're affiliated with your guild is a quick and easy way to net some possible recruits. Get your name out there by doing things both in-game and on the forums. Making an official YouTube channel for your guild and displaying some of your best videos on the forums is a great way to get your name out into the community, but you must ensure that your videos aren't low quality or messy, otherwise people may be repelled by your guild's display of poor craftsmanship.





    Finally, you'll eventually want your website outlet as a method of communication. Now, this has been discussed earlier in Section I, but it's about time that we go into a little bit more detail. Thinking about what kind of website you want (you won't have a super-amazing one right away) is essential. First, look at your guild and think of what website you need. For a slammer guild, you'll want a more simple website.





    Once you've got your website created, you will want to spend a few days adding features and beautifying your pages. No one likes an ugly website, so at least TRY to make it look nice. If you can't figure out the basics of how to build these websites, there are always people that will be willing to help you.
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    Now that you're equipped with an array of useful knowledge, you're ready to begin posting your application. Make sure it's neat, pretty, and has something to offer that other guilds don't. If you're really stumped, go look at some other applications to get ideas for your own.

    For questions, comments and concerns relating to the accuracy or integrity of the information contained herein, or if you just need a little advice, you may contact me by sending em a private message on this forum website.






    Thank you for reading my guild manual,
    ~GreyWolf64
    mistriman, MidKnights and Alexboy132 like this.
  3. Von_Seckendorff Platinum

    XP:
    42,255xp
    SPECIAL THANKS


    Special thanks to "20thCenturyBoy" for support and inspiration to help me fix my own broken guild, and for giving me the means and support to write this manual. Everybody thank this guy.



    [IMG]



    TL;DR If you TL;DR'd this, you don't care enough about your clan to take the time to accept this advice, and you're better off joining a clan as opposed to starting one.
    mistriman, Tdiaz5, a2A209_ and 2 others like this.

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