Why Clans FAIL and What YOU Can Do To Prevent That

[USABxBOOYO]

Okay, you've looked at DeathEnhanced's clan guide, and you've made your clan thread. Good! Now you're wondering "What do I do now? How do I stop it from failing like all those other clans?" Well you're in luck! Your good friend Booyo is here to give you a nice tutorial on how to stop your clan from failing. I myself am the co-leader alongside USABxSLAYER of the very successful USAB clan, so I feel like I should share some of the strategies/methods USAB uses to not just survive, but thrive. Of course you can just just skip over this little guide, but I suggest reading it and following it.

Not Reading the Clan Creation Guides
"But Booyo, in your introduction, you said we've already read it." I know, I know, but there are always those kids who skip over the Clan Creation Guides, look at this, and skip right past the introduction. Well here you go: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11169

Accepting Clan Hoppers
Probably the most obnoxiously obvious thing I see when I come to these fail clans is leaders accepting clan-hoppers, people who jump from clan to clan like they're playing hopscotch on a bed of hot coals. They have no loyalty, they just want the status. Some of them might even be trolls looking to create conflict by joining and then leaving. So, do your research before you accept someone. If you look at their posts and they have about seventeen applications to ten different clans, they're probably clan-hoppers.

Keeping Drama Queens
There are people here on the forums, I'm not going to name any names, who just love to start drama and conflict within the clans. Make sure you give these guys the boot quick before they cause people to leave.

Giving Power Out to the Wrong People
One of the things I see that really makes me want to slam my head against a desk is when people say, "Hey, if you join my clan first, you can be clan co-leader." DON'T DO THIS. If you've picked people to help you lead the clan, that's great. If you haven't, you might want to go around looking for people to help you lead the clan. After that, you can promote those that you think are worthy to positions of power. This is the way USAB works, what with its Officers and the Executive Board/ORUCs.

Not Having a Written Set of Rules
The most important thing in USAB (besides the members themselves) is its Constitution. Without it, there would be no rules. Effectively, I would be able to do whatever I wanted because, read, HURR DURR I HAVE INFINITE POWER YOU ARE MY SLAVES NOW BTW JOIN MY CLAN AND BE MY SLAVE. Yeah, people don't really like dictators with infinite power, not even if they're good ones. The whole lack of a say in anything is a real turn-off. Another thing the Constitution does besides limit the power of the leaders is it sets rules forward for the clan members (Yes, leaders, you need to abide by the rules too). It says what clan members can't do and what will happen if they decide they're going to go off and go against that. A written set of rules and regulations is just generally a good idea.

Letting People Get Away With Things Because They're Your "Friends"
You see, when certain people get immunity from the rules because they're the clan leader's "friends", that doesn't really sit well with most people. It doesn't sit well at all, actually. Make sure you make it absolutely clear that everyone, even the leaders, follows the rules at all times.

Inactivity
Well, duh, no one's going to want to join a clan if nobody's active. It's the clan leaders' responsibility to make sure the clan is doing alright and everyone is going to be active.

Accepting Any Two Year Old Who Can Write a Sentence
It pains me to see people do this. Please don't do it. If you need to know why not, just look at "Accepting Clan Hoppers" and "Keeping Drama Queens" as well as "Inactivity".

Not Following Your Own Rules
I don't know what it is, but most people don't like hypocrites. I know I've said this before, but please, follow your own rules.

Accepting People Who Think They Run the Clan (suggested by Platinum)
Some people think that, and don't ask me why, they just do, they will instantly or eventually get a position of power when they enter the clan. Don't accept these people and kick them out if they start whining about not instantly getting power. If you don't, then they'll probably end up trying to get involved in leadership matters and will essentially be annoying "backseat leaders". They're bad for your image.

Accepting People Who Apply In-Game
People who join the clan from in-game are usually not very active, not reliable, and will usually not make a forum account or post on your clan section/thread to confirm their admission into the clan. As far as the Site Admins are concerned, this person doesn't actually exist and you just pulled him out of nowhere to increase your roster or meet the requirements for getting a section.

Having a Clan Just for the Section or Your Own Personal Gain
If you're making a clan just so that you can get a section or because you want to make yourself "famous" within the community, please end it now. Clans like these are destined to fail.

Having Too Many Ranks (suggested by GreaseMonkey)
Creating too many ranks causes confusion and division within a clan. It's best to have a few ranks that are easy to track. For instance, USAB has nine ranks, but five of them are used simply to track activity in the clan, so it's not anything like "get two hundred kills to move up" and there's no real reward or way to advance yourself besides staying active in the clan to get a signature that says "Enlisted - Veteran" instead of just "Enlisted". The other four ranks are just various people who help out with the clan and have slightly different roles and signatures. The only way to actively rank up in USAB is to apply for Officer and that's it. Overall, if your clan has a lot of ranks, it's best to just abolish them and save yourself the trouble.

Well, that's pretty much everything I could think of. If you have any more helpful suggestions, I would be happy to add them to the list.

[razor10000]

Nice tips. I got a lot respect for the USAB clan now.

[slyking]

I'll keep this in mind. :D

[Carnage]

Lemme add one...
Accepting every single person who applies, just for the members. *Cough* Specific person *Cough*

[USABxBOOYO]

That would fall under "Accepting Any Two Year Old Who Can Type a Sentence"

[Carnage]

I suppose so.

[Platinum]

I have a tip that I'm not sure is up there: Don't accept people who think they run the clan.

[USABxBOOYO]

Added it.

[Platinum]

Yay! I was mentioned! XD

[hindos]

Yay! I was mentioned! XD

But it says here http://ace-spades.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=2198 that you were banned, what's going on here?

Also this is a very nice guide, i think i'll point gizmoe (TA leader) to it; maybe it will help us become more epic :D

[Platinum]

I was only banned for 1 day for accumulating 3 warnings.

[USABxBOOYO]

Addded two more things to not do.

[Carnage]

I know who can compare to the last one... I believe it was brought up last night on the IRC.

[Platinum]

Yes! Why didn't I think of those 2?

[Conduit]

How about keeping a healthy number of members?
A good number of members can be around 20, right? And if you let a clan get so big, it would be harder to keep a grasp of everything and soon it would quickly fall apart under its own weight.
Trust me on this. :\