Recruiting Members?

[Yutuyu]

Probably a dumb/odd question, but does anyone have any particularly good methods on how to recruit members for HNM shells?

The situation:

About 6 months ago or so, our ex-leader made a small-man shell to do sky/sea/ground etc. We never had more than 20 members or so, and always had a difficult getting people due to our leader's somewhat questionable reputation and regard with other linkshells (I don't think the idiot who called for help on Aspid at 20% helped either, but it was hilarious to watch all of the people on the server get owned as they ran into range of a called for help King, and died over and over again for about 45 minutes).

After we all busted our ass and put a lot of effort into the shell, the leader up and vanishes with little to no warning, claims some BS about being too sick to play, and then leaves us out to dry. No real secondary leaders existed (he pretty much micro-managed every aspect during events, though he did ask some of us for help with strategy formation, he was a control freak), so when he vanished the shell went into chaos.

At the time we had about 14-16 people who would attend every event, we did OK. We still needed to recruit more people, then he poofed, and now we're down to about 8 people and really unable to do much of anything. Hard to get people to join an LS which is floundering, and our methods of recruiting people seem to be doing absolutely nothing.

We've tried changing the LS name to revamp our image, recruiting for people in our other shells (Limbus/Dynamis out-of-house shells I run), posting on KI (and even lolallah (. . )), and talking to our friends. We refuse to shoutspam for members. So I'm wondering how everyone here got their members.

Did you guys just recruit friends? Is there some secret here? Can you help us out possibly?

[superfob]

Pyramid scheme.

[Fng]

start at your friends list, merit parties and mission groups. Be picky.

6 people can farm sky endlessly. (well prolly not Kirin but I am waiting on Wopa or Kanican to prove us wrong on that as well)

8 people can kill Fafnir and the other NQ ground can be dou'd.

[Vedder]

Referral onry.

Seriously, don't shout or post on KI or any crap like that. Start with friends of friends and determine how many degrees of Kevin Bacon out from the "core" group you want to go.

[Angelsin]

Reputation goes a long way too. If you can show people you are capable of things that others may struggle with or are difficult then people will notice you guys and want to join you as well. From there you can pick and choose which people you want in your shell.

[Doofus]

I tried making a shout shell once, it didnt work out.

Anyone looking for a shell on KI or alla, is not one you want in your linkshell.

[OctavoGilgamesh]

/breaklinkshell

[Carnusty]

Personally I just somewhat started an event shell myself, and I'm only inviting people that I know from it, like other people on this thread have mentioned.

I know alot of people from my Dynamis-onry shell and Flist, so I've been migrating back and forth and deciding that way.

[Bagel]

My rule of recruitment is you need either
Ridill
Relic
or 75 BRD

[Sylphet]

My rule of recruitment is you need either
Ridill
Relic
or 75 BRD

What if I have a Relic horn on my 75 BRD and a TH4 mule with a Ridill?

and on a more serious note.. Since you don't have the reputation to start out with (judging from what I read in the OP), I'd start out with friends. Then from there you can find people you trust and who perform well and get suggestions from them for new members. Build it up slowly. Most critical is a good leader, someone who's smart and knows the strategies for what you're aiming to beat and who will be fair and impartial about drops. If leadership is respected, you gain respect of members and people outside the shell notice. Eventually applicants will come to you. If you get really good then you will have to beat them away with a stick

[Zanz L. Barre The 3rd]

That whole post was just an excuse to brag!

Kidding o' course, but the most critical and obvious way to assure success is finding a truly just, kind, and knowledgeable leader who respects and listens to his/her members. Be active and consistent with events, and be sure to be involved with your members (merit, quest, ENM, KS, BC with them). Communicate with your members through a forum and encourage them to visit often, maybe even host a Ventrilo server after a while. Finally, make an effort to avoid an establishment of cliques. Cliques, unfortunatly, are almost always a guarantee within most linkshells but I am inclined to warn you these can be very destructive to a linkshell.

Listen and be level-headed.

Good luck.

[Naramaska]

Start with your friends and move outward; ask for your friends' friends, etc. Never resort to /sh'ing or posting somewhere "HAY COME JOIN MY LS!!!1!" because, well, you get the kind of people who read those forums...and you know how that goes.

Two things to keep in mind though.

1: Reputation goes a long way. We've had a handful of people join our LS now who had never even stepped foot near endgame in any form but liked the reputation our LS had. Result? The RDM who joined our shell in his first day fought Cerberus and Jorm, never missed a single GoH, and as the only RDM at Jorm only missed like 3-4 Blizzagas. You'd be suprised how many genuinely skilled people there are out there without an endgame-focused LS.

2: Make sure people understand that friends are good, but not everyone's friend is cut out for HNMLS's. I don't know how many times someone's app has been shot down from various LS's because although they may be friends with everyone in the endgame scene, that doesn't matter if you're horrendously stupid at what you do.