Forum Thread

You want a club. What kind of club? When you make a club it's best to think what you want your focus to be: Pokemon, a television show, a type of food, etc. When you make this club try to think of a few things before making it.

**Note to use the search function in the forums before making a club. Don't make a ghost type lovers club when one has already been made.**

The topic of your club: is the topic one that can be discussed by various people? The more open/popular your topic is the better.

Example of an open topic : a club about fairy types is open for discussion, many people have access to this knowledge, and can learn more about this type through that club.

Example of a not open topic : a club about a television show that only airs at 1:00 am on Tuesdays. Not sure what show that is but you see my point, a random uncommon show might not get a lot of attention because no one has seen it.

Example of a popular topic : Try and think of popular shows such as Doctor, Who? Game of Thrones. Walking Dead. I'm sure people would be more open to discuss and participate in popular shows.

This may seem like a small detail but tell you what: Would you rather join a club with just text on the front page, or a club with art and color and sprites? We are more attracted to pretty images than we are text (warning this does not apply to movies based on books. Normally text is the better option haha). So I recommend making some colorful text for the title of your club.

Don't know how to make colored text or don't know all the colors or don't know BB-code in general? A nice guide to BB-codes can be found here. BB-codes are your friend, they make things easier to get to, prettier, and all around more organized.

Another suggestion is banners: those nice things you see in people's signatures. Make a banner for your club, or have other members make one, so that you can promote your club every time you post on the forum without saying "join my club!" People will see your banner and might get interested because again pictures matter! Don't be afraid to take the time to make some pictures.

A good club is run by good rules. Your rules don't have to be perfect the first time around, you will end up adjusting them and adding to them as you see what members do and how they behave. Some basic rules you should always start with are here:

Respect everyone (self explanatory)
No mini-modding (what this means is that other members will not tell members what to do and punish them for doing it. You're the leader and that is your job to make sure your members behave. However you can always appoint mods and I'll discuss this later)
Follow all PH rules (this makes it so people won't do the obvious such as double posting, spamming, cursing, etc.)
No rude behavior (swearing, arguing, being mean in general)
And have fun (always should be a rule)

Those are the rules you should probably start out with. Obviously you can add to these rules or take them away, you are the club leader and you have standards. If you want people to have good grammar make it a rule, if you want people to be active for a certain amount of days at a time make it a rule. It's your club, so make the rules how you see fit.

As for the form it could look something like this at first just for the basics. Now since every club is usually different I'll use the form for my club as an example:

Username:
Nicknames:
Why you love Pumpkaboo:
How often are you on Pokéheroes?:
Do you know anyone in the club currently?:
Who is the King of this group?:
Are you in any other clubs currently?:
Do you promise to respect others members, be friendly, and courteous?:
Your Pumpkasona (What you want your Pumpakboo to look like):

Now that's a bit long. But the basics out of this you could have for sure are this:



The form obviously isn't set in stone. You can always adjust it as time goes on. My original form was really short and as time went on I expanded it.

So, you have your club, nice layout, good set of rules, and an easy to fill out form. Wonderful! Now the meat of your club: the members. You may want to look at your members and access their forms seriously, don't be afraid to tell people they aren't accepted if they failed to fill out your form or if they just don't match your standards. It's always best to see each member and don't be afraid to ask them any questions if you don't understand how they filled out the form.

Once you've got members you may say, "This is great but I'm not on Pokeheroes 24/7. Who will run the club while I'm gone?" Well, you can appoint mods. And no, I don't mean to grab the actual mods of the site and ask them to run your club for you. I mean people already in the club. But be aware not to make just anyone a mod, here are some qualities to look for in a mod:

Activity level: usually high
Friendliness: they're easy to approach and friendly to other members
Professionalism: you feel you can trust this person to be professional when need be if handling a member

**Now, having a mod in your club doesn't replace the site mods. If fighting is happening in your club or if someone is being rude, swearing, insulting other members, report that person to a site mod because that behavior might be a bit too much for you to handle.**

But what if you want someone to help you plan events (which I will mention later) or handle something you don't feel your club mods can? That's what Co-leader is for. In my club I plan on having two co-leaders, one male and one female so that if members have problems they can feel comfortable going to either gender. Co-leaders are more for planning things for the club, talking to privately about behind the scenes of the club, things that your mods shouldn't worry about because they are there to moderate behavior.

All qualities of a mod should be in your Co-leader as well.

Well, you have a club, you have members, you have ranks for members. Now what? Well, now you should plan some events for your club! What events you ask? Here is some examples.

Art contest: people like pictures like I mentioned, and what do people like more than pictures? Their own pictures! If you hold an art contest and say you'll display the person's art on the front page people will like to draw for you, and this is an easy way to get original pictures for the club.

Quizzes: have you seen those chat quizzes in hero chat? They're fun right? Get people interested? Why not make on yourself? Set up some questions, I recommend ten at maximum, and have your questions planned before hand. Make the questions related to the topic around your club, hold the quiz in the chat and invite the members from your club to partake. It helps promote your club and is a fun way to get people interested.

Writing: people like to get creative, and not all creative has to come in picture form. I know, I said text usually fails in comparison to pictures, but only if the text is boring and plain, but a story on the other hand is wonderful. Get people to write about the topic of your fan club, why they love it, when they first started like the topic, the funny times they had with the topic. Whoever writes perhaps the most interesting story, or letter, or poem will win this event and get their piece promoted in the club.
**Note that there should be a limit on this such as maximum of 200 characters or only two paragraphs so people don't out write each other**

Other: it's your club, so some events might make sense where others don't, so come up with ideas original to your topic. Don't be afraid to work outside of the site as well, such as a contest in Pokemon X or Y to catch the most of the Pokemon that your topic is about. Or cosplay as a character from the TV show and post it in the club.

**Note that other people are in your club, and since this club is more for them than anything be sure to ask them what they want to do. If they don't like the idea of an art contest don't do it. If people want to do a quiz then set one up.**

"What? Money? I need money to make a club?!" No, thank goodness, but those events I mentioned earlier aren't that popular without some sort of prize such as PD (Pokédollars, a.k.a cash). Where does this money come from you ask? Well a few places.

You: you can use your money to make prizes for others.

You plus Co-Leader: you both can chip into the group fund for prizes and such.

Donation pool: this is usually the more popular of the two. Have an a potion for donating to the group, can be exclusive to members in the club or people outside the club can donate as well. Now be careful with this: keep a record of how much money is donated so you don't dip into the group funds.

Okay you've had some events, members seem happy, everything is going good. But the club's hype is dying down, people aren't talking as much, the club is dying. What do you do? Revive it.

How? Here are some simple ways of doing so:

Ask a discussion question: don't ask "yes" or "no" questions when reviving your club. Get people to expand on their answers and get them discussing. Example would be "What is your favorite fairy type Pokemon and why?" Or "I think that when this character did this he was right to do so. What do you think?"
Questions like this get people involved, get them thinking, and get them excited to start talking again.

But what if people get off topic? Your club is about fairy Pokemon and the people in your club are talking about their favorite dinner. Not on topic and can easily make people uninterested, people didn't come here to talk about dinner they came to talk about the topic. Tell the person/people derailing the conversation not to, tell the person or people to discuss it elsewhere because this is your club remember.

So, people are on topic, you've had events and things are going well. Now you see, the more members you get the more likely drama and fighting will occur. People have different opinions, different temperaments, different a lot of things. When two people are put in one group and told to get along when they don't things can get messy.

How do you handle two or more people arguing publicly in your peaceful club?

I've had to experiment with this myself, I've had to kick people out, deal with PMs, tell mods, etc.

If you can see one member is being rude and causing trouble kick them out, helps get rid of the problem quick and easy.

But if the line of who is right and who is wrong is fuzzy, or if the argument itself is just invalid, the best thing I've found to do is kick the parties in question out. Remove the arguing and there you go all fixed. It is up to you (and your co-leader if you have one) to decide if you want to let the parties back into the club or just leave them out or pick who comes back and who stays out. You want your club to be a fun and an active place to be, not a ranting arguing mess.

**Note that if things are downright unruly you should report to a mod about the issue. Their job is to help keep the site a fun and safe place to be, if someone is making that mission difficult let them know.**

Profit. Haha sorry, no this step is a rather mysterious step. You see, not all of these steps apply to all clubs, so think of step 9 as a step for help. Maybe you have a question specific to your club, maybe you are unsure how to handle a special situation. I may not have a step for that but you can always ask here and I'll try and answer as best I can.