Advice for recruiting for free companies from someone who isn't in one.

I've been in the same FC for years now but aside from personal preferences the one thing that originally set it apart and made me inclined to stay was being treated like an individual. The person who sent the invite took an interest in getting to know me a little, not in an invasive manner but just a "Hi how's it going" kind of thing, and remembered me the next time.

I suppose technically that's not so much recruiting as welcoming but it's my two cents on free companies. In the beginning me and my husband spent a brief amount of time in several and I would say, do what you can to ensure new members feel like more than just another number.

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Originally Posted by SannaR

Yeah the generic FC info shouts are just bad as they don't tell you what makes them different from any other FC. Like the ones that say they're a casual/midcore that does everything and is a family. To me that doesn't tell me what you think everything is. Also be able to answer simple questions or at least try to take the time to answer them. For instance if you say you're drama free you should be able to tell someone how you deal with an argument that gets out of hand. Don't come off like answering a question someone might have is a waste of your time by telling them to go to your site or to your ingame history night or whatever. The person asking is a potential member or someone who if they ever wanted to join an FC or if they left their current one is doing research so they know if you're going to be enough of a fit for them.

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Don't forget the cookies they never hand out, the raids they help you do sparsely, the pvp that only one other person in the entire guild does and the family of newly invited recruits that leave the next day.

I'm in an FC that has a discord. We talk occasionally in it sure. But we do talk in game. Do not let the blame fall on a service thats quite useful for voice/text chatting. It's the people in the FC. Just because an FC has a discord, does not mean its the only source of communication.

I feel alot of this while some of it true, the rest comes from a bad experience. And I don't agree that FC's have a weak presence. They're fantastic when done correctly. But alot of times it may require three changes of leadership and growing pains. Not every FC is the same. While I agree with not blind inviting people, there is something to be said about how the rest of the post is put out.

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Originally Posted by DamianFatale

“6. Be careful of what your members do. If your members like to troll the local annoying guy in Limsa for the lulz, realize a lot of people are watching them do that, and they may not like trolls, and they will remember the FC.”

This kind of behavior singles people out, and makes more problems. Obviously If they’re being extremely hateful, then fine.

If people are all joking around, and having fun, then lighten up. Who cares what others think if you are all having a good time.

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I think the point here was that recruiters and FC leaders need to be aware of how members' behavior reflects on the FC as a whole. If it's just one member of your FC doing something other people dislike, that's one thing--but if you have multiple members doing things that irritate other people, even if they think they're just joking around, your FC definitely is going to get a certain reputation among others that might decrease your ability to recruit.

For a short while, a friend of mine joined an FC on our server who later cultivated a bad reputation for being early pullers at hunts. It wasn't every member of the FC early pulling, only a few people--nevertheless, the FC got such a bad reputation that ALL its members were banned and removed from essentially every hunt linkshell on the server, including my friend who was not an early puller, and finding parties at hunts was essentially impossible because of the actions of a few of the FC's members. My friend left the FC because of that reason.

If you're an FC leader and you don't want your FC to get an unsavory reputation, you need to at least be alert and aware to your members' behavior and consider how your members interact in groups with other members of the server community. If you're the kind of leader who is okay with your members having fun by doing things that stand a good chance of irritating other players, like trolling, so be it--but all this person is saying is that you have to be aware that's going to affect your FC's reputation among possible new recruits.

I'm the more qualified person to give advice.

I know my FC is dead but I can consistently recruit two people a day in it if i tried. That's 14 people a week...

Well, they often don't stay for long, but we're only talk about RECRUITMENT right?

#4 is the biggest one I see recruiters screw up on. I've had the same person send tells to me with almost the same exact word-for-word spiel on three different occasions, with one I actually did reply back to and decline.

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Originally Posted by NessaWyvern

Nah, he ran away too quickly, so the leaders spell got interrupted. :P

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I give you kudos for playing along with the question rather than being rude. Well played!

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Originally Posted by Lauront

Should've taken Concentrate. ;)

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I'm not sure if Concentrate works for things that have gone out of range, and broken LoS, since my brother sprinted out the FC door. (He was sent that tell when he stumbled into the erp session in the fc house. All he wanted to do was find the mender, poor guy.)

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Originally Posted by JackHatchet

I give you kudos for playing along with the question rather than being rude. Well played!

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Thanks, I use jokes to hide the mental scarring @-@

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Originally Posted by Super_Bee_Brian

I'm the more qualified person to give advice.

I know my FC is dead but I can consistently recruit two people a day in it if i tried. That's 14 people a week...

Well, they often don't stay for long, but we're only talk about RECRUITMENT right?

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But are you actually giving cookies to your newly recruited marks? I mean, fc members?

Someone has to ask the real questions.