Clan/Kin differences Options

[MonkeyFiend]

Thought I'd make a post to clarify to the differences between =SM= clan and Kinship.

This post is long, don't expect everyone to read it, but it's better to have this in advance of issues with recruitment or ejection of members.


BACKGROUND



=SM= in its current guise has operated since the BF2 days (although the members have been playing FPS games since the 90's) and was aimed at first person shooter games. Such games require server hosting and additional resources (Procon, Battlerecorder hosting etc.,), which in the peak of BF2 totalled over £106 per month. As such this operation relied on the donation of members to keep the servers online. In essence clan members owned a share in the servers we operate as a cooperative and therefore the most sensible way was to allow settings/configs/rules to be decided by equal share voting. This kind of setup only really works when people have similar views on the settings/rules, so we needed to be careful with recruitment.

FPS gamer actions also have a greater impact on the clan. Popularity of servers rely on reputation and good adminning, so it was important to thoroughily vet people as a bad member could set the rep and popularity of the clan back a long way. There's also a bit more close interaction and proximity in the FPS genre, any dislike between clan members would often soon boil over.

LOTRO on the other hand was first picked up by Fox/Myself and was a nice counter-weight against the FPS genre (not having to deal with cheats). Subscriptions are paid to Codemasters, we don't host servers. So essentially there's no costs. It's even possible to operate a kin and avoid certain individuals within that kin if there are personality conflicts - something impossible in FPS games. There's no split of costs involved and the recruitment of potentially unsound members has lesser impact and thefore the recruitment for the lotro kin is a bit less strict.

Since the clan members are more heavily vetted, often investing time and money in the clan, it is appropriate that this is the group that has a say on the overall running of =SM=. The kin essentially governs it's own operation in lotro as a self-contained unit (with no costs) with no reason for the clan to interfere. However larger issues affecting =SM= as a whole (such as buying servers etc.,) is governed through clan member votes.



KIN vs CLAN RECRUITMENT DIFFERENCES



There are differences between the Kin and Clan, but firstly to be clear: neither group outranks the other.

Clan recruitment usually takes the form of playing with us, making a recruitment post, being recommended by two members (assuming they've played with the person in our servers), a 7-14 day trial period, followed by a general veto type vote whereby the recruit only enters the clan if no existing clan members object. If one clan member votes no, the recruitment is rejected.

Kinship currently recruits though Fox, requiring a decent level of english, teamspeak for comms and a good personality. If a member turns out to be unsuitable they can be removed by the usual clan ejection process or be handled privately through the kin. The point being here is that we may recruit people who seem ok, as even if they turn out not to be, they have little potential for causing damage.

If a kinmember wishes, they may request upgrade to clan member at any time (preferably after getting to know people) and such members will undertake the standard clan member recruitment as detailed above.


FORUMS ACCESS:



Clan members group colour is Red, Kin members group colour is Orange.

Clan members see all public forums + Trusted non clan area + kinship area (public/private) + clan members area + clan voting areas
Kinship members see all public forums + Trusted non clan area + kinship areas (public/private)

Essentially the clan sees all areas, the kin see all except for the clan & voting area. Since the clan members decide the direction and financial allocation of =SM= it is important they see the whole operation, including any factors relating to running of the kin (even if they're not currently active in Lotro).


Ejection of Clan members: This area is covered in depth in the clan rules/policies document.

Ejection of Kin members: Ejection of a kin member may be brought about by a majority vote. To enact this please contact Fox/Monkey by PM/email/TS. The proposer of ejection will be asked for a written reason, the defendant will be asked for a defence. A forum for member ejection will then be accessible by the rest of the kin, but not by the proposer/defendant. These reasons/defence will be posted here and will serve as an area for private discussion, including an anonymous majority poll to retain or remove the proposed ejectee.

Clan members will also have access to vote, although with internal kin matters they are not typically expected to. A clan member would usually only place a vote in a kinship ejection if actions detailed could potentially have knock-on effects to =SM= as a whole or bring =SM= into disrepute.

We ask that all members try to sort out their differences and only use the ejection process as a final port of call. No 2 ejection votes can be placed within 2 weeks of each other (as a means of deterring reprisal votes).

On a personal note: using the 'do what I want or I'm leaving!' thing as a bargaining chip is not acceptable. I'll personally vote against anyone who uses this kind of behavior regardless of other factors.