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Clan Tips
A guide to creating and maintaining a clan or guild on FFR
I'll be using my old clan as a reference for most of this guide. You can find that clan here.
Purpose
You're clan needs a purpose; a reason for it's existence. Otherwise, what's the point? If you like to write stories, write one up about your clan. Something that explains how it came to be. A lot of times you'll see clans that are based on a video game (usually Final Fantasy). Either one works just as well. For my clan, a wrote a short story about the world being in terrible danger from some evil villain and a group of Archangels had to save the world.
Names
Naming your clan is possibly the most important aspect of the process, because that is the first thing people will see. They'll go to Yevon Arena, and the name of your clan will be the deciding factor in whether or not they even check out your clan. With that in mind, you want to come up with a good name that isn't cheesy My clan was just called "Archangels". When I made the second version, I just added "Re-birth" to the name. As you can see, it's not that hard to come up with a name, but it does require a bit of thought. It doesn't hurt to add a bit of spice to the title. (Example: ~*Clan Name*~) Much cooler than just "Clan Name"; isn't it?
The Look
This is the most complicated part of the process. You may have drawn people to your clan with that fancy title, but now you have to deliver a visually awesome clan.
First, you need to know a little about organizing a clan. The very first thing on your clan should be the clan name. Next, should be the "about" section of your clan, followed by the rules, then a member list. The very last thing on your clan post should be updates. A general rule of thumb is; anything that potential members should know before joining goes above the member list; and anything that is more directed a people who are already members goes below the member list. We'll talk about fine-tuning these things later.
Next, you need to know a little about colors. A colorful clan is important, but make sure you don't over do it. Now, FFR has a color pallet to choose from, but to be quite honest, it's pretty slim pickings. There is a whole world of colors to choose from; if you know about Hex color codes.
A Hex color code is a six digit number/letter code that produces a color. For example, FFR's post background color is 1b1b22. How the codes work isn't important, because the internet is filled with sites that hold various color choosers just so you don't have to learn a great deal about Hex color codes.
My favorite color chooser is this one. Not only does it help you out with the hex codes, but it also creates color schemes based on which ever color you choose.
*For those of you who use photoshop; you're life just got ten times easier. You can actually test these colors out before even typing up the code on here.
We're going to put the hex codes to use in a little bit, but right now I want to talk a bit about the kind of colors you should use. A lot of new members go through the color drop down box a usually pick whichever color they like the most. The problem with this is FFR has a very dark theme; the darkest part of it's theme is the post background. Dark colors do not work with dark backgrounds. Anything that's clearly visible on a white background, will most likely be a bad choice for FFR's background.
Now, how do you use the hex color codes? It's really simple. Highlight the bit of text you want to assign a color to. Let's say it's the clan name. Highlight "clan name", then go up to the color chooser box at the top of the editor box (The "A" with a bold line below it and a downward arrow to the right.) and pick a color, any color, you're going to change it, so which one you choose doesn't matter. You'll end up with something like this:
PHP Code:
[color="Black"]Clan Name[/color]
I don't want black though, I want a pretty blue. So, highlight "black"(leave the quotation marks there), then paste in the color code. I'm going to use "#32669E" (that number sign is very important for hex colors, so make sure it's always there.)
Now you have this:
PHP Code:
[color="#32669E"]Clan Name[/color]
Which will give you this:
Clan Name
Fine-Tuning
I told you we'd get back to this. There's more than just colors when it comes to making a visually stimulating clan. It need to be organized and easy to read. You'll need to make use out of a few more vB Codes to get an awesome clan. I'm going to make up a mini clan post, and then show you the codes behind it.
Mini-Clan Example:
Quote:
Clan Name
Clan Slogan
(Clan slogans never hurt)
About Clan Name
This is where you're going to talk about you're clan's purpose for existing.
Rules
1. Rule #1
2. Rule #2
3. Rule #3
(It never hurts to include a rule that says forum rules apply. Some people tend to forget that.)
Joining
This is important too. Be sure to include all the information you want from a member when they request to join.
Member List
~*Leaders*~
Founder
title
Co Leader
title
Co Leader
title
~Members~
title
Member #1
title
Member #2
title
Member #3
title
Member #4
title
Member #5
title
Badges/Tags
(Badges should be something small that people can add into their signatures without overpowering their own tags.
Updates
Date - Update (Yup, it's just that simple)
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Now, for the code behind the madness. It looks overwhelming, but it's really not. When you're the one putting this together, you'll understand it all.
PHP Code:
[center][font="Impact"][size="7"][color="#326697"]Clan Name[/color][/size][/font]
[size="5"][font="Impact"]Clan Slogan [/font][/size]
(Clan slogans never hurt)
[color="#94ADC5"][b][u][size="4"]About Clan Name[/size][/u][/b][/color]
This is where you're going to talk about you're clan's purpose for existing.
[color="#94ADC5"][b][u][size="4"]Rules[/size][/u][/b][/color]
1. Rule #1
2. Rule #2
3. Rule #3
(It never hurts to include a rule that says forum rules apply. Some people tend to forget that.)
[color="#94ADC5"][b][u][size="4"]Joining[/size][/u][/b][/color]
This is important too. Be sure to include all the information you want from a member when they request to join.
[color="#94ADC5"][b][u][size="4"]Member List[/size][/u][/b][/color]
[b]~*Leaders*~[/b]
[b]Founder[/b]
title
[b]Co Leader[/b]
title
[b]Co Leader[/b]
title
[b]~Members~[/b]
title
[b]Member #1[/b]
title
[b]Member #2[/b]
title
[b]Member #3[/b]
title
[b]Member #4[/b]
title
[b]Member #5[/b]
title
[color="#94ADC5"][b][u][size="4"]Badges/Tags[/size][/u][/b][/color]
(Badges should be something small that people can add into their signatures without overpowering their own tags.
[color="#94ADC5"][b][u][size="4"]Updates[/size][/u][/b][/color]
[b]Date[/b] - Update (Yup, it's just that simple)[/center]
Rather then explain every single one of these codes to you, I'm just going to send you to where you kind find them.
http://forums.ffrepublic.com/misc.php?do=bbcode
This is where you'll find out what those codes do, and you can find many more there as well.
A few final bits of advice
- Don't be a tyrant. Yes, it is your clan and your rules, but no one wants to be part of clan where they have no say.
- When waging some form of war with another clan, it would be wise to create a thread for that war. Either in the *****ing Grounds (for flame wars) OR the RP Terminal if it's a good old fashioned RP battle.
- Be patient. It is unusual for one to gain all the members they want in a days time. It could take weeks, or even months.
- Don't send out random PMs asking people to join your clans. It's annoying and won't help you gain any members.
- Last, but not least; the way you behave around FFR in general will effect how well your clan does. If you act in a way that result in member's disliking you, you're clan is not going to go over very well at all.
So, happy clan making. PM me if you have and questions or suggestions. |
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