FC management abc

After a good number of tales from various FC, this is the set of hints I am following on how to manage a FC. I think thay are reasonable, but any advice is welcome, it maybe I've missed some point :)

1) Ranks: make sure all ranks do NOT have any disruptive rights over the FC. It is not a question of trust, but of time: sooner or later a bad apple may get a rank he doesn't deserve, and doing nasty things with it. It is not question of "if" this happens, but when. If you care your FC, set your 'when' to never when possible;

2) Gil: you must be the only one that withdraws them. If officers need gil for stuff, you will handle them manually. Same reason as 1);

3) Officers: you need trust them. But trust is not blinded eyes: give them the rights they need to help you effectively, but no more;

4) Promotion/demotion rights: never give them to any rank. The game implements them as free-for-all, aka people can promote/demote to any existing rank but master, even above theirs, so it is a no go. If you really want set them for a reason, you have to make sure hint 1) is fully checked;

5) Special one-time requests from officers/random members: if you need assign some special right to a member, create a temporary rank with just only the needed stuff and give that to the member but remember: if you had given promotion rights, this rank is virtually obtainable by everyone in your FC. You have been warned;

6) Recruitment. You need have a clear idea about how to do your recruitment. You can set a vetting process, make random shouts, having recruiters, anything, but just make your mind how to recruit, and make your recruiters (if any) share it, to avoid misunderstandings. More you go far from vetting, more random is the people you will have in the FC. Set your standards first and let your officers help you on them being met.

I really think these sorts of things should be defaults in managing an FC. Not just from the players but from the settings as well. You should always default to more security than not.

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Originally Posted by Atreyu

I really think these sorts of things should be defaults ... from the settings as well...

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Honestly, what gives much of the burden is how promotions are implemented. Handling promotions on a large FC starts to be a burden if you cannot share it with officers by design.

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Originally Posted by LalaRu

Honestly, what gives much of the burden is how promotions are implemented. Handling promotions on a large FC starts to be a burden if you cannot share it with officers by design.

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Which is why I have a problem every time someone says it can't be changed. This is the only guild system I've ever seen that is this crazy with how it handles promitiond.

I think I would also add another thing: Communicate with your recruiters! One of the biggest problems I've had as Guildmaster is my officers recruiting people without talking to them first to make sure they're a good match for us. It erodes trust both ways when the GM has to dismiss a player an officer invited. There are people I no longer trust to recruit, and I'm sure there are people who now don't think I respect their judgment because I've dismissed their mentees from our company.

My general rule is that if I wouldn't be friends with someone irl, I don't want them in my FC.

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Originally Posted by Chalbee

I think I would also add another thing: Communicate with your recruiters! One of the biggest problems I've had as Guildmaster is my officers recruiting people without talking to them first to make sure they're a good match for us. It erodes trust both ways when the GM has to dismiss a player an officer invited. There are people I no longer trust to recruit, and I'm sure there are people who now don't think I respect their judgment because I've dismissed their mentees from our company.

My general rule is that if I wouldn't be friends with someone irl, I don't want them in my FC.

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Indeed. This is something that i think of every time I see an FC randomly shouting near an Aetheryte.

If you actually try to make sure people are a good fit, it takes time to recruit new members, and find ones who will stay, long term.

One thing that I think the FC system desperately needs (other than a fix for the promotion capability) is better communication. When players communicate more, they get to know each other, and it makes it easier to see if people fit in or not, as well as more quickly bringing people into the group. Ideally, the Lodestone FC pages could be made available in-game via a noticeboard like furnishing in the FC house. Players could read and post via that interface, which would help everyone talk even if they are not all on at the same time, and would enable the FC Master and officers to communicate with the entire membership at once.

The lack of these kinds of feature and the issues with Promotions make the FCs feel almost like an afterthought for SE.

About vetting potential members, there is the difficulty of do it, I mean, you do need a good player first meets with a recruiter by chance, and then it needs the recruiter notice him someway. Even if that makes a FC grow slowly, it surely have the benefit of reduce the potential for unwelcome guests.

Then, there is the "random shouts" method, that makes a fc grow with people that have asked to join, but you don't know who they are until they shows themselves into the fc's daily life.

A third one is halfway between them: the recuiter that chat with any fc-less players to check if the player may join, just checking the simple willing and/or common interests.

Will now try to update the op with your suggestions trying to be as neutral as possible, thanks!

Good idea for a thread and some very good advice :)

Suggestion Re: New members
It's a good idea to have an entry rank with very few privileges and to keep new members at this rank for a couple of weeks. This will deter people who hop companies in the hope of cleaning out the chest. I'd still lock down chest privileges fairly tight for other ranks though.

Recruitment:
Our company only accepts new members after their application has gone through our website but this policy is in place because we are specifically for people with Social Anxiety. It might be too strict for a lot of companies but we are far more interested in getting the right people than simply boosting our numbers.
Even for companies with a more general focus, I don't think letting all ranks invite is a good policy; it can quickly get out of control. I think it's worth spending time talking to potential recruits and finding a little about them before you accept them. They get the chance to find out about your company and judge if it's a good fit for them and it shows you are interested in them as a person and not simply spamming invites to every sprout online.

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Originally Posted by Solarra

... entry rank with very few privileges and to keep new members at this rank for a couple of weeks. This will deter people who hop companies in the hope of cleaning out the chest...

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Yep, you can figure out that people when they are nice and all, and no signs of anything wrong, willing to help, etc, but to leave shortly thereafter the join without a word or a reason. My guess is them checked the chest and left after no luck on that :)

I'd also suggest devising a general Code of Conduct that all members are expected to abide by.