Is it worth merging with another FC? Or what to do with a dead and empty FC?

Hello, I'm currently the leader of a very dead LS on a populated server, and I am currently looking into various options.

Due to owning a FC house and an airship (all of which I crafted and bought with my own monies), paid website with hosting, as well as Discord, Youtube, and Twitch that all share the branding, I don't have the luxury of just jumping ship to a larger group, since I have all these existing resources. The majority of my members haven't logged in for over two months now, with several over three to fourth months since their last login, and not even US Fanfest seems to have pulled back my usual suspects, such as my co-founder, whom I have played with for years now in XIV.

I personally love the game, and find plenty of reasons to log in for a few hours every single day, but I'm also not going to lie, and will admit that all the effort to gain new members and just have them never log in, or quit my FC and join another due to the lack of overall activity has taken a toll on my enjoyment of the game.

Since I'm now one of the many 1/? FCs taking up space, with no immediate changes to that, I'm looking for advice on what to do, and appreciate any and all feedback.

You could make an effort to gain new members :)

Or you could sell the FC+house.
Plenty of people like having a solo FC and will pay high prices for a fully ranked up FC with house and airships.

Building an FC back from the brink is never easy. I have had to do it with some of my closest friends 3 or 4 times now, we have never wanted to be huge, enough to field an 8-man or 2 is more than enough. I am on a smaller server (Coeurl), so population itself is an issue, as well as blind inviting (which, personally, I find very impersonal and sometimes even rude) picking up the people for the already larger FC's where it feels like you are not a member, just a number. As far as paying for websites, many places let you host for free, with limited control. Discord is safe and free for a decently large swath (even 8 people online is a full 8-man content group, after all). Sometimes it is just better to aim for a small/medium size FC, enough to keep your credits active, head afloat, and enough to make friends, then you can expand out from there. Its a determination factor, simply put.

Depends on if you still want to own an FC, want to sell, or want to sell to an FC that will allow you to be a member/merging with another FC.

If still own, obviously just advertise your FC. Pay people gil to join and offer to help them out a lot by doing things like crafting gear for them to incentivize.

If want to sell, someone already mentioned how valuable a fully leveled up FC house can be to someone who doesn't want to be in an actual FC but still have the benefits of owning one for personal use.

If merging, advertise in party finder.

I've taken the advice supplied above, and am in the process of figuring out how to relaunch my FC, but I have a few more questions from the FC Gurus.

The next issue is the illusion of activity within a FC, which I am looking for feedback on.

My FC is currently 1/8, with everyone else being 45+ days out from their last login. Would it be advisable to remove some of those members, like the ones pushing over 110+ days of inactive? I'm afraid people will look at my FC and see such a small amount of players online compared to the full size, and write it off instantly as a dead group. A different FC leader advised that he uses a 45 day cutoff for his group, since people will just rejoin at patches to catch up, or bail if they come back to a less active FC, which I've noticed as well in my time running several FCs.

Also, would it be fair to have a requirement for members to join the forum I have created for the group, or is that overkill for a social / casual FC? I've personally found members that indulge in such things tend to be more dedicated to the group and game we're playing, but I felt it would be worth asking others for feedback.

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Originally Posted by Blacksmith_Tony

Also, would it be fair to have a requirement for members to join the forum I have created for the group, or is that overkill for a social / casual FC?

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I'd say overkill. Stick with a discord server and don't be pushy. Social/Casual people don't tend to enjoy being told what to do.

I had the same problem.

I purged all the members who hadn't logged in for months as having those large numbers beside names is usually a red flag or turn off to potential new recruits, dropped discord, the website and everything else (a website isn't really mandatory for a casual fc, I found a fb page was free, easier to maintain, much more popular and easier to get people to join and participate in, and no one really used the discord outside events and since we weren't having them no need to pay for it again til we do) and then I sat on my FC for awhile, in fact I still am. Building up FC points, bank and everything else. Perhaps one day I will reboot it, but it would definitely have to wait until I get help running the thing, solo leading an fc is not worth the stress imo.

So drop those members and sit and let your FC grow a bit. Build a wheel and get a stock of free company actions too, that will be super super helpful later on. Put a plan of action together, see if you have a good companion willing to help you out and work with them to make it an FC people will want to join.