Subject: Recruiting

Over the last week or so i've been going over the database with Shane and it's become clear that while we're doing everything we can with small resources, we're pushing against the tide. The database, the youth system and everything else are keeping us afloat but they've not had the effect i was hoping for when i set it up 5 seasons ago. In some part thats due to us losing some of our best players to the stupid bot rule but mainly it's because this is a numbers game and we're massively outnumbered.
Now i was going to suggest a big co-ordinated recruitment drive, going through Bebo, Myspace and anything else we can use and that'll come later but i think firstly we need some sort of system for making sure we keep any new users and that they actually learn the game. So i'm looking for ideas.
What has always seemed strange to me is how rarely new users join the forum. I genuinely dont understand that at all but i think if we can get them on the forum, they're far more likely to stay.
I'll have to talk to the admin for Ireland but what i'd like is a scheduel for adding teams, eg 6pm each day. That way we can have a ready-made message sent to them as soon as they login.
What i also want to add is the numbers the Romanian forum have (change your language to Romanian and you'll see what i mean). It makes the game a lot easier to understand right away, instead of having to learn the rankings.
Lastly i think we need a checklist of things to do. Sort of like HT used to have for new users as a way to learn the game.
Anyone got anything else to add?

its summer now so its a good time to get ppl involved... and its not a time consuming game either...
think we could suceed alright. to me at the moment it seems we have a pretty decent amount of people joining currently...
the main problem as you said is getting people to stay!
i agree with a checklist.

tactics, how to set them up and what is good - NIN i learned from ur youtube vid like!
rules
finance info income an expenditure im gonna assume young ppl will need some basics!
youths and coaches basics
also advice on transfers, etc...

maybe a preprepared message to be deliveded to all newcomers giving links to all of the above stuff and people to contact etc...

personally, the fact the newbie thread was empty i feel kinda sums up how ppl dont ask questions about the game. i had a mate on msn from england and learnt 90% of stuff i know from him like! so maybe getting people involved on that would be helpful also!

is there a youth database? or do ye just use excel to keep track of youths?

There's an online database and an Excel database that currently has just over 200 players on it. The youths are on that.
I think a lot of people join up and are overawed by how much you've got to learn. Thats why i wanted numbers next to the skills but Gibbage shot that down.

yeah well iv been here 3 seasons now i think it is and i still dont know them :P
i have a general idea of how the skills go alright but thats it :P
there isnt that much to learn, compared to a normal online game so i dotn see much problem, the only thing is starting takes time to set up tactics, buy a few players etc...
the bidding system really annoys me...

Tragic 0
Hopeless 1
Unsatisfactory 2
Poor 3
Weak 4
Average 5
Adequate 6
Good 7
Solid 8
Very Good 9
Excellent 10
Formidable 11
Outstanding 12
Incredible 13
Brilliant 14
Magical 15
Unearthly 16
Divine 17

And i'm well on the way to knowing them in French, Polish, Italian and Spanish.

hahaha :P

n yeah if i wanna know them i just open transfers in a new tab an see where it is ;)
im still below 10 for all my players :P
except 1 has a formid pace i think :D
an i do have an excellent youth with 16 weeks left so he mite make something too, fingers crossed!

start a sokker page on bebo so ;)
as a band or however u do it, if thats ur thing!

I'd be happy to help with any recruiting or advertising that needs doing. I've done it for a good few other online games before.

invest 10k in an advert on RTE... :D

personally as i sed above, the main agenda i feel is keeping people who have joined, here
there needs to be a method to do that...
no point in getting 500 ppl to join if theyre just gonna let the accounts rot and become bots again in 2 months!
(edited)

We need some sort of system for messaging people as soon as they join. The problem with that is knowing when they join. We've got the New Manager thread and the census but they're usually only updated once a week.
I asked Gibbage about who's repsonsible for allowing teams to join but he didnt answer me, the swine.
I'm tempted to create the Bebo and Myspace accounts myself but honestly, i think i'm getting close to overloading my workload when i already have the database the SIC and various other little things.

im not gonna write on ur newbie topic caus it shud all be in order IMO...
not a bad start :P
first thing i did was change the skin so all icons were different :P
lol

Yeah i need to mention that it'll look different. I'm using the old skin because my monitor is rubbish

I'll start Stage 3 tomorrow but can someone look through Stage 1 and 2 and see if anything obvious is missing.

section 2 needs a bit of a mention on fanclub i think...
also that bit in the rules about their happiness level and how it affects sponsorship and stuff...

other than that its grand. :) i didnt know pace trained the same for all 11 players on the pitch :)

I'm not sure whether it's exactly the same for all 11 players but i dont think it's far off.
I didnt add anything on the fanclub or sponsorship because it's stuff that's out of your control.

I've been meaning to say this for a while but there could be a benefit to whoever is willing to set us up with a Mybebobook page. By sending new people to join the site through this link, anyone who joins and then buys Plus will get you 10 Free days of it.

www.sokker.org/?buddy=your_login

eg

www.sokker.org/?buddy=Nin

I think thats how it works.

We have a Bebo page but i'm not publishing the link until i've done some more work on it.