Opening the Clan Chat to guests

[YGE]

I know I've not been in the clan as such for long, but it's a voice I guess!

Stepping stones as others have said for once a weekend is a good start. If members aren't happy with the once a weekend thing, then it can be closed off again. If people are happy with it, progress further to maybe 2 days a week etcetc. Once a weekend is a good starter though to test if the clan likes it or not.

I understand that under 18's guesting could be a problem, but that's why testing it out once a weekend is a good idea. It would be nice for people to experience the clan (like myself, guesting) even if it's just a day to meet everyone.

[Dr Brad]

It's the weekend -- Clan chat is now open to guests. We'll continue with this every weekend and see how it goes.

[Oobz]

Another reminder that we do this still. Feel free to invite any non clan friends to come and try out the cc

[Red Anomaly]

How's everyone liking this? Would opening it for more than just weekends be something people are interested in at this point (as others suggested initially)?

[Lady in Ice]

How's everyone liking this? Would opening it for more than just weekends be something people are interested in at this point (as others suggested initially)?

I´d be for opening it for more.

At this point we´re losing more members each month than new ones apply.

I don´t know if we hava data about number of members through time but accordng to skillweeks trackers there were 120 participants in July 2014 skillweek and 90 in March 2015 (at least 3 being HC accounts , so basicly 87 ) which makes -27.5% of members ( or -33) during 8 months.

Right now we have 81 active forum members ( rest alumni+ 1 clan rep).

Some numbers:

January : 9 applications, 11 left
February : 8 apps, 18 left
March : 3 apps, 8 left

The trend is obvious.

I have been in clan and in staff for a looong time
As far as I remember recruiting has been done the same way... It was easy when we started out in 2008 because we were basicly one of the few adult clans.. now there are at least 10-12! ( RS forums) ... which means we need to give a lot more effort to make us appealing for new members.

Obviously the way we have been doing recruiting so far isn´t working well anymore.
Placing vexes doesn´t help either .

We actually have to " sell" ourselves

What are our strengths that make us stand out among those other 12 adult clans?

How could we make our ad in RSOF more appealing?

Where do people look for clans and what makes them make a choice?


Imo we could try opening the cc..it could only be temporary ( let´s say for a month or so to see if there is any influence). If it doesn´t work, we can change back.


Just my 2 cents

[Red Anomaly]

I agree, this could be a good way to gain more exposure for the clan, as well as just meet new people and have fun.

As was pointed out earlier, we have the ability to ban people from cc if someone becomes a problem.

[Deep_Pain]

Where do people look for clans and what makes them make a choice?

I would hazard a guess that the vast majority who have joined KoA over the years have come here through a google search.

we were number one for a long time if you searched for Runescape adult clan, active Runescape clan and many others and first page for more generic terms like runescape clan.
although we are indirectly top as the first result is about us (for runescape adult clan), but not linked to us.

I would imagine this has quite a large effect, I doubt ingame recruiting levels have changed much over time, even with new competitors.

although we are linked by a lot of sites, we have no longer have a landing page, so no content with keywords - this affects the page ranking quite a lot.

either copying the source code and reimplementing the landing page: http://web.archive.org/web/201402081352 ... clan.info/

or by opening some forums so that they can be catalogued by bots would likely rectify that.

[Lady in Ice]

Where do people look for clans and what makes them make a choice?

I would hazard a guess that the vast majority who have joined KoA over the years have come here through a google search.

Sorry, couldn´t resist. I always giggle when I see this post : viewtopic.php?f=10 ... it=million

[Oobz]

Where do people look for clans and what makes them make a choice?

I would hazard a guess that the vast majority who have joined KoA over the years have come here through a google search.

we were number one for a long time if you searched for Runescape adult clan, active Runescape clan and many others and first page for more generic terms like runescape clan.
although we are indirectly top as the first result is about us (for runescape adult clan), but not linked to us.

I would imagine this has quite a large effect, I doubt ingame recruiting levels have changed much over time, even with new competitors.

although we are linked by a lot of sites, we have no longer have a landing page, so no content with keywords - this affects the page ranking quite a lot.

either copying the source code and reimplementing the landing page: http://web.archive.org/web/201402081352 ... clan.info/

or by opening some forums so that they can be catalogued by bots would likely rectify that.

This is my guess too, however, this is something Obi would have to sort out because I have absolutely no idea how to do it lol.

[Oobz]

On the subject of opening the cc full time - we have discussed this and the biggest issue surrounding it is are the activity requirements. If we open the Clan Chat full time, anyone can enter without commiting anything to the clan, we see this as unfair to our full time, regular members of the clan who make an effort to keep the clan active. There are other issues which have been discussed in public, but from an admin point of view, this is probably the biggest.

You may say, well scrap the activity requirements. If we did that we would have a load of inactive members clogging up the clan chat list, it could also have an adverse affect on the forums, now I know forums are not for everyone, but I for one very much enjoy them and I know others that do too. Whenever we would like/have to have a clear out of inactive members, we would have no way to decide between who is and who isn't active.

[Deep_Pain]

Where do people look for clans and what makes them make a choice?

I would hazard a guess that the vast majority who have joined KoA over the years have come here through a google search.

Sorry, couldn´t resist. I always giggle when I see this post : viewtopic.php?f=10 ... it=million

we don't even come near the top for "Dr Brad administrator in Runescape clan with porn issues" anymore

[Lady in Ice]

we don't even come near the top for "Dr Brad administrator in Runescape clan with porn issues" anymore

This only means good!
I´m glad that Dr Brad has solved his issues.



I can see the problems that Oobz pointed out.

However, we need to grow our numbers, and if nothing else helps, this could still be an option .
Also we don´t really know how people would behave or how it would influence the clan.. because we never tried.

[Dr Brad]

However, we need to grow our numbers

Why is this? Why do we need more people to have an enjoyable community? I know you've always felt strongly about this, but I'm not convinced of "the bigger the better"

[Lady in Ice]

However, we need to grow our numbers

Why is this? Why do we need more people to have an enjoyable community? I know you've always felt strongly about this, but I'm not convinced of "the bigger the better"

I agree, the bigger isn´t always the better and I don´t question possibility of enjoyable community in small clans either.

There´s 2 issues in my opinion:

1) continuous decrease of number of KoA members. With that speed in 2-3 years there will be 20 people in clan.

2) Event activity. That wouldn´t be a problem at all if we didn´t have this "promise" to be the most active adult clan in RS :

Despite our relaxed activity requirements we are very active and we believe, partly due to our entry requirements, are the most active adult clan on RuneScape.

I´m not sure if you still gather data about number of events and participants but I feel the interest in attending events has decreased as well. Which is logical when there are less members . Correct me , if I´m wrong.

The thing is, there are many activities in RS which only can be done by group and the more people are in clan, the bigger is probability of people who would like to take part in specific events.
I´d like to have Vorago events in KoA one day

In the past we could pull almost 20 people to Jagex cup, clan Olympics and such. Could we do it now?

Oh, and forum activity. I do enjoy forums a lot! There is a place in admin panel where you can see the average number of posts per day. Couple of years ago it was about 50-60 or so. Right now we have days when there are 5-10 posts. Just curious, what is the average number now?

Maybe we would just need to rethink the idea of KoA?
I understand, there are different things people are expecting from a good clan. Some just only want to talk in cc, some want to do something together with clannies. Maybe majority of us think those things I pointed out are not a problem at all?
If we´re ok being a small clan then maybe take out this " most active adult clan" part from our description?

And yeah, bigger clan isn´t always better... but you cannot say bigger clan is worse either

I personally like an active clan with active forums and active cc

[Deep_Pain]

I agree with Kal

let me add a couple of caveats;

A: I didn't your whole post sorry Kal! (yes I know, I don't know how anyone can be bothered to read mine either - but I stopped reading because.. see point B)
B: I think me agreeing with Kal is a sign of Armageddon, the end of the world, the apocalypse, ragnarok.. whichever.. so I don't agree totally
C: march was unusually low apps and I don't think could be considered part of a trend
D: In Feb(a bit of march too probably) a bunch of people left due to issues they had with the clan - again that is quite an unusual occurrence - so cant really be included in a trend.

with 15 or so of the 88 either alumni or test accounts or me - that is quite low, however not worryingly low, especially as the few times I have been in the CC - it has been pretty active (again maybe not a trend as I haven't been in much). But certainly something that should have an eye kept on.