Creating Clans - minimum requirements

Originally posted by Nyxie
Totally opposed to this.

Since you are the only person to respond totally in the negative I would be interested as to your reasons

Some good responses here thanks.

I think I am leaning towards a 3 person minimum rather than 6 because I agree that not all clans are in for leagues and when you think about it 3 persons is a quorum. ie. To get a clan activated an individual proposes the clan (as leader) and gets two people to second (by becoming members). The same rule would apply for minimum members for ongoing maintenance.

I am also thinking that 1 year is perhaps a bit too long, it is a benefit of becoming a subscriber after all to be able to create a clan, so it should be a benefit that can be taken within the subscription period. Perhaps 6 months is more reasonable, 3 months at a stretch.

Still interested in more thoughts on this, or other ideas that would achieve the same or similar results

Originally posted by Aiko
I was thinking of starting a thread to get a view on which clans are somewhat 'worthy' of existing.

I had in mind that only clan members (to prevent needless gluther up of the thread (I could make an additional thread purely for discussions) or double posting about a certain clan) post a message in that thread, naming their clan and a self explained answe ...[text shortened]... bers feel about certain clans and their contribution to RHP

Shall I start a thread like this?

Yeah, this is ridiculous. Clans don't exist to make everyone else like them. They are for the members of them.

All, I have expanded this concept and from the feedback so far come up with what I believe is a workable outline.

Active:
A clan is considered Active if it has 3 or subscriber members including the leader; the leader has also been a subscriber for at least six months; and the clan has engaged in clan challenges or clan leagues within the prior three month period. Active clans have all the rights and abilities that they currently enjoy.

Probation*:
1. Clans can only be created by non-provisional subscribers after their first six months of subscription.
2. Created clans will be on Probation until three or more subscribers join as members (including leader). At which point they are considered Active.
3. Active clans will be put on Probation, if at any point the number of subscriber members falls below three (including leader).

Inactive**:
4. Clans on Probation for more than three months will be considered Inactive.
5. Active clans that do not issue or accept or otherwise engage in clan challenges or RHP leagues over a three month period will be considered Inactive.
5. Clans that are Inactive will stay inactive for one month for resolution of clan leadership.

Defunct/Disbanded***:
6. Clans that are Inactive for more than one month with no resolution to clan leadership will be made defunct and all members will be disbanded.

* Probation - Clans on probation cannot issue or receive or otherwise engage in clan challenges or clan leagues. They are considered invisisble to all other clan leaders that are issueing challenges. All subscribers can see the clan in the clan listings and the clan can recruit new members.

**Inactive - Clans that are Inactive are treated similarly to those on Probation; in addition they cannot recruit members and are considered invisible to all RHP subscribers except the current clan members. During the inactive period the clan leader is removed. Current clan members excluding the removed leader may vie for leadership via internal voting for a simple majority or at the discretion of site admin.

***Defunct/Disbanded - If a clan never got past probation, the clan records are deleted as if the clan never existed. If the clan had been Active and engaged in clan challenges or clan leagues then the historical data remains.

Originally posted by Hegemon
All, I have expanded this concept and from the feedback so far come up with what I believe is a workable outline.

Active:
A clan is considered Active if it has 3 or subscriber members including the leader; the leader has also been a subscriber for at least six months; and the clan has engaged in clan challenges or clan leagues within the prior three mont ...[text shortened]... had been Active and engaged in clan challenges or clan leagues then the historical data remains.

Clans should only be inactive if they aren't playing any games at all. What if everyone in the clan gets overloaded from a few too many challenges and the clan doesnt accept any new ones for three months. If they have long challenges they are still playing plenty of games. Or what if the leader goes on a three month vacation. Not common, but this rule would apply to everyone on RHP. It would probably happen eventually.

Why shouldn't innactive clans be allowed to issue or recieve clan challenges or recieve new members. Why make it illegal to solve the problem.

Originally posted by UmbrageOfSnow
Clans should only be inactive if they aren't playing any games at all. What if everyone in the clan gets overloaded from a few too many challenges and the clan doesnt accept any new ones for three months. If they have long challenges they are still playing plenty of games. Or what if the leader goes on a three month vacation. Not common, but this ...[text shortened]... e or recieve clan challenges or recieve new members. Why make it illegal to solve the problem.

From experience, the average clan challenge if playing only 7/7 lasts 3 months. Assuming that the clan has 3 members all involved in challenges and that they can all handle 12 games going at once, then they can handle 6 challenges ongoing, this will lead to a challenge finishing once a fortnight. Where upon they can do further challenges.

Lets assume that even this is overloading and they can only hand 4 games (2 challenges). Their games will be reduced down to two challenges within 2 months. This will leave plenty of opportunity to engage in a challenge in the third month.

In the very unlikely event that a leader (that wants to be the leader) is away for three months then I think he does not deserve to be the leader and either should have arranged for someone to fill his place or he should lose leadership (via inactivity)

I see absolutely no reason why a clan could not engage in at least one challenge (or league) over the space of three months.

To your final point, three months is ample time to resolve the issue of not engaging in challenges. Becoming "inactive" forces the issue to be resolved via a new leader or the clan is disbanded. I think it might be appropriate though that a warning message is sent to all clan members after 2 months of not engaging in challenges.

Originally posted by Hegemon
From experience, the average clan challenge if playing only 7/7 lasts 3 months. Assuming that the clan has 3 members all involved in challenges and that they can all handle 12 games going at once, then they can handle 6 challenges ongoing, this will lead to a challenge finishing once a fortnight. Where upon they can do further challenges.

Lets assume that ...[text shortened]... that a warning message is sent to all clan members after 2 months of not engaging in challenges.

I'm not talking about the average size clan. What if Bobla45 for example wanted to make a clan for him and the other chess players aboard his ship. They would probably try for challenges longer than 7 days and easily go more that 3 months without finishing a game. I'm not saying these type of things will be likely or common, but with everyone on RHP there is bound to be something that comes up. We aren't talking about what the average player/clan will do, we're talking about the extreme situations.

Anyway, making this an actual rule seems like pointless red tape. Just let people have their one man clans and ignore them. Maybe add a sort or filter feature which lets you just look at clans with certain numbers of people.

Originally posted by UmbrageOfSnow
I'm not talking about the average size clan. What if Bobla45 for example wanted to make a clan for him and the other chess players aboard his ship. They would probably try for challenges longer than 7 days and easily go more that 3 months without finishing a game. I'm not saying these type of things will be likely or common, but with everyone on R ...[text shortened]... e add a sort or filter feature which lets you just look at clans with certain numbers of people.

There's already a filter in place for clans that are not active over 30 days. Another filter won't solve the underlying problem of too many clans, at least in terms of maintenance of the server, as the data is still there, cluttering up the system.

As for red tape, as a website (or a business) grows, you have to put some controls in place to manage and control its growth. Hegeon's proposal will go some way towards managing the clan side of this website. Definitley not pointless red tape.