Hi everyone, Recently, we've seen a crop of users joining for the sole purpose of recruiting for their clan. While we understand that there are users wanting to join and start clans, we wanted to issue a statement on our stance of the matter. We do NOT condone users that are throwing links to external sites to potentially poach users for their clan. We are a community, and while we support both the competitive and casual aspects of the game, we want those users to thrive within the ecosystem that we've created. Going forward, we won't be allowing users to advertise clans for recruiting purposes. If you have a clan and you'd like to have it hosted here, please shoot me a PM and we'll discuss making that happen for you. I'd be more than happy to accommodate users who want to do something of that nature here in a more private setting, but we're not going to allow users to poach our community members. With that being said, I'll be revealing a new section in the community that'll be "our take" on teaming up. Expect to hear more about that in the coming days!
There is alot of members just posting about there clans i agree i've seen alot of them since i joined. Looking forward to what you got planned
I agree with the OP here. This is a community website and not a recruitment forum for other clans to poach our members, Would be cool to see what @WhoIsDo has instore for us.
Thank you for making that plain and simple! I am along for the ride...so where are we going Big Guy? (said as I ride on top of my teammates Titan
It's something that we're working on/organizing. We're more of a community/hub for people to discuss the game and all of its aspects, but we do see that a proper "team/clan" is something everyone is interested in. I'm going to be brainstorming some ideas on how to effectively do it, but we should see a team/clan for our community sometime in the future. Hopefully before launch.
The way to make those members who made those "first post," clan recruitment threads feel welcome[d] is by creating a Clan Forum specifically designed for them. Granted, you don't want to have members be poached by clans; they're not [really] poaching. They're recruiting players to their clan. If I came here with my own TitanFall competitor site to your TitanFall site, and I threw a link to my forum/website - THAT'S poaching, unless I ask you if I could advertise. I'm sorry, but I think this is a bad idea. I've seen a few sites with these specialized [clan] forums and they don't thrive. As a matter of fact, most clans who don't really have the fortitude to make that clan big, well-known, or legendary - they abandon those forums you've created. On top of that, most clans don't want to give you (the owner of TF-Community) traffic. By the end of the day, you lose. Just create a general recruitment forum and wash your hands. Don't worry about anything else, just do it and not worry about future drama. It's your site, but I can't say I didn't warn you.
Big clan (aka community) sites don't allow advertisements for other clans on their forums, absolutely no reason we should either. I am in complete agreement that as a rule people should not be advertising other community sites here. My views on a dedicated clan recruitment forum haven't changed much in that I still don't see the overall need for one. If people do post to such a forum they will probably post once and the discussion will more than likely migrate to PM and then to voice. We'll wind up with a forum full of single-post threads. I think our existing forums handle the current load of "looking for X" just fine while still presenting substantive and active discussions. That could change come release, but I don't see a need to jump the gun just yet. This is just the opinion of a chicken-arrow shot from a bow about to penetrate a man's chest.
We're not talking about "big clan" sites here. This is a niche community centered around TitanFall, nothing more, nothing less. Of course, competing clan sites don't post on each other's sites, but niche communities centered around a game serve two purposes for the users - talking about a game, and creating matches. For the owner, it's usually either because they're huge fans of the company (that makes the game - for this instance), huge fans of the game series (franchise), or making money off the niche. Once the game is released, you're going to be bombarded with an influx of "looking for X" threads, which is the reason why I've said to create a Clan Forum. If you think the current existing forums handle the threads just fine, then why did @WhoIsDo make this thread? It's because he's jumping the gun on members who has started making threads about "looking for X" recruitment drives. And if you think you shouldn't jump the gun... wait for launch day, and maybe even 3 months later - you'll see tons of these "looking for X" recruitment threads. It won't stop until you've clarified the rules on the site. Granted you guys have rules, but there isn't/aren't rules for posting clan threads. Banning new members just for creating clan threads? All those 1 thousand members will start talking shit about this site and spread like a wildfire.
No user has been banned solely off of creating a recruitment thread. The posts themselves have been deleted/locked, but no bans have occurred. Everyone here, including @WhoIsDo, understands there is a strong desire for our members to be able to party/team up with one another via the site. The point he's trying to make is that it's okay to ask people here to party up or even make their own clan within the site. The thing we're trying to deter is single post members making one thread with a link to another site trying to get members to join that site. Whether it is for a clan/team/squad or not, it's kind of rude to do so in that manner. We want people to team up, and that's why we're working on something in the next couple of days so people can say, "Hey! Looking for a couple people to play tonight". We want to be a tight-knit community where we can all play together on our respective platforms, and not have to worry about people creating a post trying to poach any of our members.
It's not rude. You guys didn't have to delete those posts. Just create the forum, and allow them to post there, even if it is with a link to their clan site/team site/squad site. I know what I'm talking about; I see this often in many niche sites. Even your own competitors are doing it. And like I said before, I have this setup on my own Call of Duty site. The rules I have for it are: - ONE clan thread per clan. - No bumping. The only "bump" you can do is making an update about the clan, after up to two weeks. No ifs or buts. I know what you're saying, but you're not making it easy for users to feel like they can post a clan thread. As a matter of fact, I guarantee you that about 60% of the members that had their threads deleted must have had a "WTF? What the fuck is this shit?" And never want to come back, so you end up losing their interest. Again, it's your site.
You sound very knowledgeable on the subject matter and I like the ideas you've presented. In regards to what we're talking about, what I'm pointing out isn't just the users that have tried to make clans of their own. Yes, we could have handled those differently, but we were receiving and influx of members making one post stating they were here to sign people up to a different site for a team or whatever. Those are the posts/members we're trying to deter from this site. Not the single individuals who are looking for some people to join a squad and play together. Like I said before, @WhoIsDo is working on a new system which will hopefully be launching in a couple days. Until then, like he said in the OP, if anyone wants to inquire about posting squad/team information, just shoot him a PM and the two parties can discuss the matter.
I beg to differ. This does relate to big clans, in part, as many have re-positioned themselves over the years as general gaming communities. They are so big they have their own recruiters who will come here once maybe twice, post a recruitment thread and never return or care about a thread being closed. Regardless of our status as a "niche" community around Titanfall, those other communities really have no place advertising here. They are recruiting for their own "niche" communities which are a part of the larger whole. Again these clans are big enough that people can find them by other means without much effort. You are probably right, but I've administered sites before as well and the time it takes to setup another forum and do a quick search and move threads there is not that bad, maybe takes an hour at most. Now if we are going for something more advanced then that's a different story. Given the focus that @WhoIsDo has on this particular topic I'm anxious to see what he comes up with. *shrug* Those people were here for one purpose: posting a recruitment thread. So any action taken after they posted probably wasn't noticed. You guys aren't doing anything I wouldn't expect at this point.
I'm interested in seeing what @WhoIsDo is going to create. Although what Carlos has stated are very valid points and mostly true, maybe it's time to change how game forums are done. Seems fitting for a forum dedicated to a game that has pretty much broken the mold to FPS.
For myself, I know that I did not join this site because I wanted to "join" or "form" a clan. Been there, done that. I wanted a place to discuss the game, maybe find some other PC gamers that want to get together and play, and have fun. That's all. I do not care how big, or small this community gets. It started out fairly small, and I believe that many of us will stay for a long time. I for one enjoy this site very much. Wouldn't be here if I didn't like it. Whether or not this community creates a "Clan" is up to us to decide. And not because its what we must do to survive. I am willing to wait to see what WhoIsDo is going to suggest.