runeperoxide

At this point teams are just too popular for a clan to ban their members from joining one. Like people have mentioned, you'd just end up with a ton of people leaving. Yeah, but at the same time if people are so upset about this, then you're going to have to start making those unpopular decisions at first. Someone's got to take the first step, except everyone seems to be terrified over how many members they might lose to do so. It makes arguing about this useless, albeit for different reasons than others feel it is useless. It's why I think this is part of the flock mentality. Clan A will block teams if they see Clan B/C/D/E/F/G/etc do it. God forbid they put themselves at a disadvantage for what they believe in. Because they want to preserve 'quality'. Firstly, I think its a growing notion that teams are a way to multi-clan. You should notice increasingly more and more topics related to this on different fan sites than ever before. When you are looking for larger clans for answers, you will not find it there. Since there are no teams as large as top clans, so there is no threat for them yet to take it into perspective. As I said in my previous post, it is relative. Moreover, when a large clan is involved in a team which is shared with many smaller clans, the larger clan benefits the most by absorbing new members even though the smaller clans benefit temporarily (strictly speaking when there are large difference of sizes with the clans involved) , and the smaller clans take the loss. Usually, no one notices the little man amongst giants. Its the little clans that make up the massive population in clanning world, although not involved so visibly on fan sites. Secondly, multiclanning is more of a tradition than a trend in its different forms. Even when old wildy was around, people sought to be in multiple clans. It was a sort of popularity status. It is when these clans clashed in wildy for a rank or recognition, that is where this tradition was stopped or prevented by ladders and ranking systems to create fair means of competition OR simply to avoid endless arguments and disputes. The newer ranking systems allow this sort of multi-clanning and their rules are more relaxed in this regard. The larger ranking systems have so massive and powerful clans that no teams of that size can exist in them to be able to compete... unless they are a country clan, which is (with reference to my previous post) a larger version of a team/ multi clanning group. The flock mentality as you call it stops or starts with widely accepted ranking systems and their enforcements.

My personal opinion: Do you classify being in a team or country/community clan multi clanning? In one word: Yes. Strictly speaking, when you join a team or country clan or community, and if that group does everything that an official clan does, including events like an official wars, night outs, ladder rankings... the works, then the identity of that group is no less than an official clan, regardless of what they call themselves. The perception of this classification is relative these days. People in larger mainstream PVP clans see smaller clans of 10-30 people, teams, CWA clans as no direct competition or threat. So the classification of multi-clanning in such clans gets lax at that point although many of the higher ranking clans would differ, sticking to the original definition, contrary to the post-wildy era clans who are evidently still confused at what is what, and go with the lax definition. Back in the old days, teams were small groups of people wanting to go and have some fun, a few quick kills here and there in the wild in a temporary get together fashion, sometimes referring themselves with a name, but by all means they did not represent a fixed competitive entity in the PVP clanning world, unless they created one - which would eventually end up being an official clan, but nowadays such groups remain being teams enjoying benefits of being in more than one large warring / PVP/CW groups, that virtually do everything official, and in some competitive ladder set ups, get equally treated as an official distinct entity. In such cases, by definition it is multi-clanning, as much as admitting it causes discomfort. The new inference, that I have seen lately in the new era clan community is that teams are just a way for friends to come together to share warring experience and have fun. That is all fine with when you compare it with the old definition, but only as long as its treated as casual. When you have 'official' wars, 'official' trips, competing with 'official' clans , in ladder matches, ranks etc and so forth, you are no less than an 'official' group and hence a clan - regardless of what you call yourselves, leaving behind the casualness. Additionally, when I say 'casualness', don't confuse it with 'no honour'. As both are entirely separate terms. Similarly country clans were made to do country wars initially, then later the label 'country clan' got diffused into 'language based clans' and 'continental clans' and so forth, giving them more flexibility to add recruits and thus attain large pulls befitting clans in that category. Such clans were fine as long as they competed in their specific category, as it was in the old days. As soon as those clans jump the category of country based PVP/warring, they are competing with official clans, and therefore by definition, become official, regardless of what they are called. Community clans on the other hand, were merely friends / long time friends trying to hold on to the remnants of their friendships forged during their most active times on Runescape or a gathering of individuals on some other common topic of interest. Later these sort of clans split into mini-game based clans, monster hunting clans and so forth. As long as these clans stay out of competing officially / warring / PVP aspect, they are not treated as official. If they do jump categories in competition, then yes it is multi-clanning. What do you consider a correct definition of multi clanning? My definition is rather more generalized: If you are in more than one group that holds "official" PVP/CW based events, competes in ladder matches in the official clans category / rankings etc, and holds a distinct identity, then you are multi-clanning. Apart from teams being a new way of multi-clanning, from a clan leaders point of view, these days teams are an escape route to filling in that gap where the clan lacks in community aspect, or events. Often shifting between groups, weaker clans manage to survive existence by feeding off elements, events, ideas, strategies from other communities and members. This could either be good or bad depending on the clan size and clan age. But in the long run, it deteriorates the focus and loyalty of the clan on whole. For a clan member's point of view, its nothing but fun, with a new concept of easily shuffling the titles of the group on friends and members in that group as teams, in a similar fashion as a CC hopping trend which is introduced by Jagex with THEIR definition of a clan. Creating forums, a Runehead list and so forth has never been easier these days, so creating such groups as teams is easy. Retaining them however requires dedication in aspects of creating events, 'borrowing' members, 'making a name' for the group, and so forth which is where the shift of loyalty between 'clan' and 'team' starts, depending on who is involved at what level.

Gf :) Same people different clan names every 3 months. ;)

Interesting topic :) Multi-clanning defeats the purpose of fair play and the authenticity of a fair competition. Clans that indulge in this sort of activity should be profiled once reported. Clans that continue to have multiclanners like this should be moved from green zone to yellow zone to red zone and consequently taxed for ranking in the list, although this requires considerable amount of administration. In my opinion you cannot judge the strength or ability of a clan when its identity is diluted by participants from another clan whether they be from another TWR clan OR a RSC/RSB/PVP clan - an extra person or two matters in the out come of wars one way or the other. Nobody can deny this fact. The "identity" of a clan gets diluted by having multi-clanners. And a clan's real "identity" is what matters in the end to have a sense of fair play or true victory when it comes to inter-clan competitions when they say "we did it!". Individuals or clans that advocate multi-clanning might as well create a "Team" and go "owning". Everyone does that, so can you as long as your "clan label" isn't being "promoted/advertised" by victories in a competition. Another way to stop this is to have all clans create their TWR ML's separately which could be monitored by a governing body - free from all multi-clanners, while they can allow those secondary clanning buddies to join into their "non-TWR" listing. Maintaining a fair competition and Effort are directly proportional ;)