Covering a few topics regarding a clan, server play, and things in between.

Hello guys..the chocolate man is here again. So to jump right in I want to share a few words with you on my perspective about a few things. I'll try to keep this short and entertaining.

We are a clan so we should act like it- Not to beat a dead horse, but making trial times much longer than just a few days of play with a couple members in order to get in our clan is needed. While it is fantastic people want to join, and we want to grow as a clan with more members..you must realize if you grow too fast too quick it is a recipe for disaster. I nor many other people would vote in a member who doesn't mesh and get along with fellow players. Let's be honest... do you want to spend your gaming time playing with a jerk? No. I don't know the age range of most of the players here, but I can safely assume the majority of us are mature players. I have nothing against young players, except their maturity level shines through in certain situations. I do not want to have to deal with whining. No one does. The age restriction being talked about now is a great idea, but above all... we need to play with players for a while and feel them out to see how they are. I played for a long while before one of the PULP members told me I should apply... I didn't even think I was here long enough to ask to join.

Admin powers- I've read a thread on it and the waiting list and pretty much what I expected to see. A lot of people wanting power. I'm sorry but I have seen MANY people in the past get admin and completely change the way they act just because they have some sort of 'power' over someone else. When I was a clan leader years ago and ran my own server, people who asked me over and over for admin were the last people I wanted to give admin to. The people who run this clan know who they should give power to...so asking and being on a waiting list is sort of useless in my honest opinion.

This is a GAME at the end of the day- I play this game for fun, and you probably do to. I've been at TFC/TF2 for about ten years I think( I lose track of time)...I am done competing and proving stuff... but I still like to join my clanmates for some good ass whooping. If you are going to join in with your mates for a game, please don't leave them in the middle of a game to go play another game. You wouldn't leave your mother on the side of the road, would you? That's the same idea. It also goes back once more to playing with people for a lengthy amount of time before promoting to member.

The infamous microphone with people who have not hit puberty yet- Guys, we all had high pitched voices before. Let's get over it. I guess i'm older than most of you here at the ripe old age of 27 so it doesn't bother me as much as some of you younger dudes in your low 20's... Kids play TF2 for the same reasons you do. They will also talk in the mic a little more than you will. They will ALSO have a higher pitched voice than you. It's not that big of a deal. It's annoying sometimes being spammed by a 13 year old in my ears yelling...but I won't rage on my computer about it. We either put age restrictions into affect so we will almost never have to deal with it with new prospective members, or we just continue inviting anyone basicly and we can talk about this every week. With our younger members that we already have... I am going to say that I am a little upset at our members who don't want them to talk. They are our team mates and we should allow them to be a member like you or me. I wouldn't want to be in a clan with guys who didn't ever want to hear me. No offense, i'm just saying MY opinion here. I stress this a lot..but being a good clan means getting along first and foremost. I think we have many very talented players and we could be a great casual gaming clan. Just need to work out the kinks

Lastly, clan leaders spend a lot of personal non gaming time running this place we post on and frag on. Say thank you to them sometimes. Maybe paypal 5 bucks here and there. It all helps. Thank you for reading.

*clap clap clap*

...I still say give the newbies a push into the lion's den an opportunity to prove their worth against the best we have to offer.

I guess that many views and only one reply means this was not taken very well.

I agree with everything stated above.
You sir deserve a BBQ point!

*gives BBQ point*

I wanted to let other people reply before replying myself. In the meantime, Cedric, your topic was the final straw for me to push trough some radical changes. I have discussed this with the other admins and you can view the announcement here:

http://forum.pulpfortress.com/news-f1/important-policy-change-on-joining-the-clan-t456.htm#4184

I share your views on admin applications. Maybe we should remove this forum? For instance Tendo never applied but we gave him admin powers simply because everyone thought it to be right. Jameless proved himself so mature by retracting his application that for this reason we wanted to make him admin lol.

About pugging and people leaving i have setup a forum where Panda, Greezy and me can discuss the scrimteam and the pugs and how to make changes without everyone else mingling in it.

About high pitched voices: Sorry but i feel a bit split up on that subject. I partly agree and disagree with you. Of course you should respect everyone that doesn't behave like a jerk. I think the fact that we have very young players in our clan proves that we don't discriminate kids. On the other hand however it's my opinion that i just rather play with older members (like you for instance). But thats just personal because i am one of the eldest in the clan. But it's not only me but i always hear so many other people on the server respond in negative ways when they hear a high pitched voice. Firestar was the target of mockery too because you could just here the immaturity in his voice and way of speaking. Ultimately it lead to a lot of problems. It will also scare of new possible members when they hear a little kid talking with a PULP tag on. I know i would reconsider. This is just my point of view and i'm always open for other ways of viewing it but i have given this some though lately.

Cedric wrote:I guess that many views and only one reply means this was not taken very well.

To be honest with you Cedric, the first I saw it I was busy with something and I thought to myself “screw this, it’s too long and I am busy. Gonna read it lataer”. However I forgot about it until I saw an unread message just now
Also you should all know that one of the 4 wiki’s I have helped from the start is facing a crisis at the moment and even though I am not active on it, I am trying to find a solution since I am a senior advisor there. In other words, it is eating away a lot of energy. But that’s another community so lets ignore all of that, shall we?

Young members can be annoying, they can also be okay as long as they stop bitching about everything 24/7. Sometimes people should know when to shut up (or use the E button to call for a medic dammit!) but that applies to all of us. I agree with you on the fact of how easy people can get in the clan. Sometimes it’s their first time on the server and right away they get invites to join. Kinda weird and I am happy that we changed the trail period to a month. We should actually know the people instead of hoping that they are okay.

Admin powers change everything! I have worked on various wiki’s and as soon as someone turned admin they would mess around for fun and laughs followed by a huge change of personality; suddenly they consider themselves worth more than a normal user and claim to be always right. Same applies to game admins I guess so I think it’s a matter of the (senior) admins to discuss who is capable of handling ‘the power’ and could be an admin. Then they should ask a few of them if they would want to be one.

TF2 a game? GTFO nice guy! Nah, I feel the same about it. I play games to relax, not to be the best player in the world. Okay, I take my stupidity to Gmod most of the time which basically is a giant sandbox version of HL2. But when I play TF2 I want to enjoy myself, not be dead serious all the time and stuff. But’s that’s something we all already know about me so why am I telling you this?

Anyway, I remember something about leaving during a pug but with it being late over here I can’t seem to find it so I will just put that here:
Leaving during a pug = STUPID! When you sign up you know whether or not you have anything planned for that time. If it’s free, sign up for it and consider that time taken, just as if it’s some appointment at the dentist, only without the hot young assistant that keeps hurting you. But no, you don’t mind because she is so damned hot. Getting off-topic here once again.

Donations are the last thing I expect to get from the younger members to be honest. Still for those interested, go to the main site and look for the big DONATE button and buy us a cup of coffee.
What? Still not donating? How about his then? I will donate a stunning $9.99 to set an example. Wanna know what I will get for it? 3 brownie points at Eraserhead, 2 Tendo points a free BBQ which I will have to pay myself and the private server for a whole month! Sounds like a real bargain to me since I sure like a nice BBQ…
Will donate on the 14th when my money arrives because I don't think €2.38 makes $9.99... not yet that is...

tl;dr:
Cedric is right!
Young members need to learn when to STFU and press e to call for a medic.
people who are horny for power will not get it.
My dentist assistant is freaking hot and she hurts me everytime I go see her but I don't mind. God I'm sure she is into bondage and stuff <3
It's just a game guys, stop being so serious about me being the worst rifle sniper ever -.-
Get in a pug -> stay in a pug.
Donate Money, cure aids and get brownie points!

Well, damn. I have no idea what happened at the pug, but I think I'll just sit this one out.

Thanks for the coming donation Pepper!! You know we have some nice rewards setup for these donations. More about that soon in the forums.

My dentist assistant is freaking hot and she hurts me everytime I go see her but I don't mind. God I'm sure she is into bondage and stuff

Looks like I have a few cavities, sir. Do you mind drilling me?

Eraserhead wrote:Thanks for the coming donation Pepper!! You know we have some nice rewards setup for these donations. More about that soon in the forums.

Nothing to see here people, he's only joking! I mean, it's not as if we would keep anything secret from you all...

I think we can agree that Cedric is a gentleman.

the whole bit about admin powers is spot on. however, i found the best way to get over that hump is to have SUPREME CONTROL over a server you own. i am renting a server and for the first two weeks the title read "adam's test server of awesomeness and admin abuse" but now i've mellowed down a bit. sure having root access(and therefore extreme admin powers) is fun, but i found that just playing the game and making people happy is so much better.

Actually when i first got admin powers it took me about a month before i first kicked someone, let alone ban someone. It simply isn't necessary that much. Being admin is hugely overrated. Simply look in sourcebans and see how many bans there are. I count 8 people out of more then 5000 people that have visited our server now...

I remember when I joined the server. The count of players who had ever played was at like 400. Oh Pulp, I'm so proud! Soon, we'll have over 9000!