Creating & Running a Clan [By:runescape.salmoneus.net]

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Starting a Clan

Before your clan is actually ready to go, you have to make a few important decisions.

The Name

The name of your clan is more important than you may think. Whether someone checks out your thread or not most likely is the name. Three things you're looking for in a clan name: originality, catchiness, and favorability.

* Originality - You have to make something up and make sure it's never been used before.
* Catchiness - You need something that will attract the crowd to your thread.
* Favorability - Something everyone will like. Not everyone will like the name "Gore Makers", you don't want your name to drive people away.

Your name should be able to fit nicely into all three of these categories.

Type of Clan

Another decision is what type of clan you want to run. There are three major types of clans.

1. All-Around - A clan that does a little bit of everything. They do minigames and host events, like wars and parties. This is the most common type of clan.
2. Skiller - A clan for skillers. Can focus on one main skill, or can be for anyone who is a skiller.
3. Minigame Clan - A clan that focuses on one specific minigame. Most common types are Clan/Castle Wars, other common types include God Wars Dungeon, Barrows, and Pest Control.

The type of clan you want to run is completely up to you. No type of clan does better than the others, its pretty much even. You should probably choose the one that suits your interests best.

Requirements

The requirements to join your clan are pretty important as well. If you're having a GWD or Barrows clan, you'll probably want a high combat level requirement. Whether you want an exclusive or public clan is completely up to you, whatever you want to do. But be aware, if you let just anybody into your clan, you might get overcrowded.

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Recruiting Members

Recruiting is one of the most important steps to making your clan. Successful recruiting usually leads to a successful clan.

Where to Recruit

Recruiting should mainly be done on RuneScape itself. If you have a large group of friends, you should ask some of them if they would like to join your clan. If you get some friends to help you in the beginning, things will be easier. You can also recruit on multiple helpsites, like Sal's. If you do post on multiple sites, though, you will have to keep updating and checking each of these threads, which can become a pain.

Who to Recruit

The most important rule to recruiting is to never force someone to join your clan. When you first ask, you should ask if they would like to join the clan, and if they say no, just say okay. Don't keep agitating them, this will only annoy them and want to join the clan less. Just try to recruit people who fit your requirements, plain and simple.

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Governing & Organizing

Leading Your Clan

To run a successful clan, you have to be able to lead. If you can't, your clan will fall apart no matter how many members you have.

Leading is more important than most people think. Just one or two bad decisions could lead to the clan falling apart. And it's not about being the highest level or having the most kills in a game of Clan Wars. Leading is:

* Setting rules and regulations, and following through with punishments for everybody
* Addressing any and all problems your clan may run into
* Helping anybody with anything they need help with
* And, most importantly, never giving up, no matter what odds are stacked against you

With successful leading like this, the clan will flourish.

Governing Your Clan

Your clan has to be governed in a fair way that everybody will feel good with. Many clans have a Senate, or something to the effect of being a small group of people that have been reliable clan members and have a lot of say in meetings and votes. This is good for helping you when you don't know what to do in a certain situation.

Meetings can sometimes get out of control. People can start spamming and the such, and you have to take control. A good solution to this is to have a Talking-Stage rule. The Talking-Stage should be in the front of whatever room you are meeting at, like the head of a table or in the throne in the throne room. If anybody not on the Talking-Stage speaks, you should punish them. I know this sounds fourth-gradish, but it works. Trust me.

Also, voting should be taken care of in a fair manner. Every single person should count as one vote, and majority should rule. You shouldn't just automatically do what you think is right, you should go to your Senate or your clan members first.

Organizing Your Clan

Your clan needs to be organized to be successful. A helpful thing for your clan could be a rules list and a black mark system. For example, if you break this rule you get this number of black marks, and this total of black marks will get you demoted, and this many for a permanent ban.

Another good thing to have is an event list. This will let your members know exactly what, where, and when something is happening. That way, everybody will be informed and you will not have to personally contact every single member on the member list.

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Alliances & Enemies

Alliances

Alliances are a great thing to have. An alliance is whenever another clan agrees to join forces with your clan whenever needed, like in war. Your power goes up if you join forces with an elite clan, especially if they are able to help you in war. There's really no downside in having alliances.

Enemies

I know how you feel. That other clan is always stealing your recruits, taking your training spots, and forcing you away from minigames. Well, you should make it clear that you dislike this clan, so your alliances will know when they join forces with you.

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Your Website & Forum Thread

Thread

Your thread should be an information center for/about your clan. For members wanting to join, you should probably have a rules list, requirements list, and general description about your clan, so that the reader can have a basic understanding of your clan. You should also have something like a News Post, a post where you can go in and say when something special or important is happening. This is very important for getting more members from the RuneScape website.

Website

Your website should be a combination of the information center of your thread and a community place, where members can talk amongst each other and discuss clan matters. You should probably stick to a completely free site until you are absolutely sure your clan will be here for time to come, then you can move on if you want. The only downside to having a clan website is you cannot openly communicate about it on RuneScape, especially not on the forums, where mods and everybody else can see. You should probably PM the website address to any new members.

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Warring

Declaring War

Declaring a war can seriously affect the morale of your clan. Don't go war-happy and declare war on everybody, the clan may be unhappy with all the enemies you are making. But don't shy away from war all the time, a war here and there can help your clan, because most people would like to have an occasional war. Also note that clan owners generally don't like random posts declaring war, especially those that guarantee a loss for that clan.

During War

A clan wars or castle wars match is an event that is anticipated by many members in your clan. It's okay for them to be excited, just make sure they don't go off and do or say anything stupid before or during the match. If you have agreements, like no food or no running, don't break the rules. Breaking rules like this will only earn you more enemies. Rule breakers should be punished to make sure it doesn't happen again.

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Conclusion

A clan can be one of your best RuneScape experiences. Your clan will experience the good, the bad, the funny, the sad. Just keep going till the end, and never ever quit on your clan because of bad times. The bad times will pass and the good times will be plentiful. Just keep on going.

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