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Only the paranoid will survive!
The Chapter Spotlight has been revived! Not by Bungie, but by a group, The Council Chambers. This weeks Chapter Spotlight goes to Mjolnir Battle Tactics! This group has members in the mid 1,000's, great resources and an active forum. A great place to discuss Halo 2, or any Xbox game for that matter. Head on over and take a look! Also, we had the honor of interviewing Guardian Hunter, the founder of Mjolnir Battle Tactics. The interview is below, and he offers a lot of great insight to all the new founders looking to get their groups up and running.
Posted by: Guardian Hunter
Well, your chapter has been featured in the first of, hopefully, many more Chapter Spotlights. Congratulations! Are you proud that your group got this kind of recognition?
Yes, I am very proud of my group for all its accomplishments and we will continue to grow and achieve new, greater things.
First of all, would you like to give the readers a quick summary of what Mjolnir Battle Tactics is about?
MBT as it is more commonly refered to is all about the discussion and sharing of strategy for xbox and xbox360 games. In the beginning it was only Halo 2 that was talked about but as we grew and the game became older and everything was found we decided as a group that we'd expand are discussion base and talk about all xbox related games.
So what originally made you want to create Mjolnir Battle Tactics? Looking at all the great resources and content it contains makes us all wonder how much time and dedication that took.
Looking back the reason I created MBT was because when I came to bungie 1 year ago I looked around the fanclub area and I saw many great groups but none of them about strategy which was a aspect of gaming that interested me.
I do put alot of effort and time into MBT to keep lively discussions going and a updated news section and of course maintaining our 2 group web-sites. One of which hasn't been open to the public yet.
How much effort does it take to maintain a group of that size? Do you do most of it alone or have you appointed a staff to assist you?
Maintaining a group of this size does present some issues that you might not find in a smaller group. Updating member ranks can be a hassle when you have to go back to the 56th page to update 1 rank. But having a large group also has its perchs too. Someone besides yourself is always online and you always get at least a couple replies to a thread within a few hours.
Of couse I couldn't run a group this size by myself so we have a staff that helps out. I don't appoint the staff as I like to think of MBT as a democracy so we hold elections every specific amount of members to appoint staff. Without our dedicated Council Members (staff) we would definitely not be were we are today. The council has done so much to help the group grow and prosper over the past year. Some of them that are still with the group today have even been here since there very beginning and are just as active and dedicated as ever. One particular person that has gone above and beyond the call of duty and has helped us out unimaginably would have to be EAGLES5. Through his dedicated and hard work he was promoted to a Co-Administrator.
Finally, what are some of the biggest tips you could give to other fledgling groups looking to gain more members or activity?
* When you are starting a new group make sure it has a focus. Even if you get a couple of members they'll never post if you make a group to generally talk. There are thousands of groups created for people to just talk so if you make a more specific topic it will interest people more and attract more people.
* If you create a new group before you go on a advertising spree add alot of content to your group. Since its new you can't boost about having a awsome forum with tons of active people so instead shift attention to all your amazing exclusive content. This is a recruiting tactic that is successful and can help you keep members interested.
* Activity and members are directly related so the more members you have the more active you'll have. But don't be discouraged if you drop a member or two or you have inactive people. Just cater to the active members and they'll be loyal and they'll bring in new members.
* Also in recruiting new members don't send PM's to everyone from a particular group or forum becuase that is called Mass PMing and is frowned upon in the community and generally doesn't prove active contributing members.
* Last but not least your the administrator so don't tick of your members or become involved in a arguement. Of course you want to try and resolve any conflicts pretaining to your members but you want to try and stay above the situation.
Finally, we at The Council Chambers would love to take Chapter nominations! You can PM them to myself, just another fan, or join the group and post them in the stickied thread.
[Edited on 2/1/2006]