So with the switch to V3 coming along we have been talking about the ways people get involved with 2o2p, join clans, meet people etc. One of the things we noticed was how hard it is for someone to really get involved with the community and how often that person just leaves after a day or so on the site.
This is mostly due to the fact that new people have the impossible task of breaking into an already insular clan and meeting completely new people that probably don't want some new guy crashing their party. As such one of the only ways to get into the site is through hanging around the main forums or knowing someone already on the site in another clan. We tried for the longest time to figure out ways of bridging this gap but it was pointless without making drastic changes to how clans operate.
Instead, we have decided to keep clans just as they are, but instead change the way people hook up with 2o2p. Starting at the launch of V3, 2old2play will go into invite only mode and new members will have to be invited by "good standing" members of 2o2p in order to participate actively in our community. We will also offer motivated new members an opportunity to sign up via peer review in order to streamline the process of getting new people hooked up with the right clans.
As an example, a completely new member could request to join 2o2p by giving us a little background on what games they play, what style of player they are, and what type of clan they're looking for. From there we can use our (already in place) welcome wagon to direct that person to a clan or leader that might be able to help. This will be a very limited amount of people but in the end should produce quality over quantity while helping to grow already existing clans with new members directly.
Invites will be given to members based on standing within the community so any new person invited will be automatically tagged with the person who invited them. This not only helps show off your recruiting powers, but allows a small bit of accountability to filter in when new people are linked with an older member. Members will be able to see who invited who and how many invites they have sent out. We will probably limit these invites in someway in order to kill spamming, but it should be fairly open.
Speaking of spam, this was another reason we decided to go invite only. Spam would basically die off completely. The remaining spam accounts that are laying dormant on the site would be caught fast simply because any invites they send out will be tagged to them. From there we can just take out the entire chain in one swoop without trying to figure out who invited who.
As for the content on 2o2p, nothing will change. Permissions as you see them now remain 100% untouched so people who like to browse the site without a membership can still fully do so. The only real difference here is how people sign up with 2o2p and interact with the community. Oddly enough, when I started 2o2p in 2005 this is really how it worked anyway. People got into the site because of word of mouth or playing with us online and I think that's how it should still be even today. If you have any thoughts on the subject please let me know in my blog comments. Game on!
J "doodi" Albert
