From Thes...

Hi Clan,

You may have noticed that I haven't been playing as much as usual. Things have been pretty busy here: working on adoption #2, opening an Etsy shoppe for my crafts, and caring for our little one. I don't see lots of free time coming my way soon...so my visits to clan will sporadic.

If you'd like to stay connected, feel free to find our Facebook group (listed in a previous post)...and friend me from there.

Happy Clashing all!!

Long time, no see!!

Hey all! Just a quick note to say "hello".

The clan has been quiet with everyone so busy for the holidays. People working hard, school finals, family, travel, and just the sheer business of this season. Hope you all are doing well!

I'm looking forward to catching up with all of you after the holiday season.

-Thes

Congrats!!!

In case you missed the announcement on chat yesterday, G81k87 had her baby....a little girl! Congrats G8!!! We all wish you and your family the best!!!

Awww...

A great screen shot of Maxisepic's global chat! Thank Max!!

Just FYI, National Kissing Day is typically in July. In 2014, it will be on July 6th. 

While Hab's away...BigDaddy will??

Hey Clan!

While Hab is away on a business trip, BigDaddy1013 will be clan leader. Thesaurus will be on occasionally, but she'll be busy taking care of her little one.

So, please make BigDaddy feel welcome as clan leader...and let's keep the drama to a minimum!!

These changes will go into effect on Saturday. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to e-mail us (veritas1blog@gmail.com).

Have a great day!

Thes!!

If you're interested....

For those of you who are interested or curious....

Smith, ACD, Asaren, and Wrangler have started a new clan. The clan is called: "thisisreallife". I know that several of you may want to visit or even stay over there. You are more than welcome. We ask that you be honest about it, and there won't be any hard feelings.

If at any point, you'd like to rejoin Veritas1, you will be welcome as long as we have space.

To the members of "thisisreallife", we wish you the best and hope that you have great success as a clan!

Rule Clarifications! Please read!

We are a clan full of fun, generous, and active players. People who chat, fight, and donate a lot! Being active on chat is an important part of our clan community. We get to know each other here, and that helps this become more than just a game for us. We learn about our lives, our challenges, our joys, and can be part of a greater community. Of course, there are lulls in chat (nights are busier than days, weekends busier than weekdays), but we strive to make sure that we are there for each other!

Level 45 minimum to get into the clan, unless you manage to catch an elder at a moment of weakness.  Everyone loves a good sob story. And there are exceptions for family/friends/former clan mates with a proven record of good participation.

Minimum donations for members (not elders): 200 donations per league season. If someone falls below this number, it's not an automatic kick from the clan. However, like we said, we're looking for active generous people. To break it down for you, that's about 15 archer donations a day for 2 weeks.  If you can't do 200 donations, then this may not be the clan for you.

If your donations are above 200, you can not be kicked for donations. However, you still may be kicked for being disrespectful, excessive swearing, or for just annoying the rest of the clan.

For elders, there is no minimum donation. An elder is someone who has the respect and trust of Hab and the other elders.  If that trust is misplaced, Hab and the other elders will fix the problem.

If anyone has an issue with another member of the clan, PLEASE bring the issue up to one or more elders. It doesn't matter if it's a donating issue or a respect issue. Clan dynamics get challenging when small issues are left to fester.

Remember, you can always e-mail Hab and Thes (although usually it's Thes who is reading e-mails). Our e-mail address is: veritas1clan@gmail.com

Farming and Pushing....and some announcements

Hey all!

So, for the next league season...we're going to be farming. Find resources, pump up your defenses, upgrade your troops, and keep your builders busy. Go as low as you need to, bronze one if you need to, in order to find resources.

Then, when the next league season starts...we're going to do our first ever trophy push. Fight, fight, fight and win the trophies. This is just to see how far we can go as a clan. If you don't feel like participating, that's just fine. But, please support those who are.

*********

Thank you to everyone who participated in last night's catch and release game...we had a ton of fun!!!

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Congrats to bigdaddy1013 for his donations this season: 4,753. Also congrats to Hab and mike for their wonderful contributions!

New Elders!

Congrats to our new elders Noah Sour and G81K87!!! Make sure you read the rules for elders further down in the blog! YAY!!


Several others of you have been nominated, but we want to watch how things go over the next week. Keep up the great work!

Remember, if you have concerns, questions, or comments: please e-mail Hab/Thes at veritas1blog@gmail.com!

Catch and Release

Last night on chat, we had a bit of fun which ended up causing some confusion. So, I wanted to explain a bit more....

Occasionally someone joins the clan who proves to be an idiot! And if there's some elders on, instead of kicking that person immediately...the elders play along...until we kick them or they leave.

Sometimes, if we're bored, we recruit a person from global who is being stupid...just so we can see what happens. Or perhaps it's just a hopper who has wandered on...

We've started calling it: "Catch and Release". You know...like fishing?

So, if you're on chat...and see us being "mean" to someone...chances are you've just caught us in the middle of a "Catch and Release". Feel free to join in after you've read through the chat to catch up. If you see references to "fishing", "fish", or something like that....then you know what's going on!

Congrats BigDaddy!!!

Bigdaddy1013 aka Dave....donated over 4000 troops during this league season! Congrats BD! You are amazing!

We would also like to welcome all the new members who have joined!

People leaving...

As most of you have noticed, we recently had some elders and members leave the clan. Smith, acd, and asaren left over some frustrations with other clan members. The full story as to why they left wasn't fully explained to anyone, so we won't be able to answer many of your questions. Several people have tried to get them back, but it seems like they have found a new home.

Temporary Changes...

Hey Everyone!!!

First of all, great week. We have awesome donation numbers and lots of great battles shared. We also have a few new members. Please direct them to the blog when you see them doing something not allowed.

So, on Tuesday (8/3), Thes and I will head off on vacation for a week. During that time we won't have much time to play. So, while we're gone, SSmith will be in charge of the clan. I will be making him leader this weekend and he will stay leader until we return.

The same rules apply and we'll still be in the clan. However, I wanted someone in charge who could handle anything that comes up.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me at: veritas1clan@gmail.com

-Hab

Contact Us

Hi Clan Members....

If you're having an issue and want to address it with an elder/leader off the board, please e-mail Hab and Thes at....... veritas1clan@gmail.com.

This is a great way to air any concerns without causing drama or just to say hello to us!

If you are an Elder: expectations....

Elder's Guide

The primary job of elder's is to keep an eye on what's going on and respond appropriately to keep things running smoothly in the clan. Please make sure that you are setting a good example for other players (being respectful, helping junior members, and following the guidelines).

If someone is requesting troops of a certain level, let them know that isn't how things work and that everyone is expected to donate, regardless of levels.

If people start swearing or disrupting clan chat, say something and try and settle things down. Or, if a problem is severe enough (remember, there are children in the clan) you can kick them. However, please communicate to the other clan elder about why you kicked. 

Please remember that we are a family-friendly clan and certain topics really don't need to be discussed on clan chat.

If you have concerns about someone (donations, not being respectful, or other issues), let other elders/leadership know.

Don't let yourself get dragged into an argument or debate about donation numbers or how active someone is. We'll handle things at that leadership level. And please do read the post about donation ratios.

If an other elder or member tells you something about being gone for a while, please share it with the other elders/leadership so that person isn't kicked.

Elders are asked NOT to elder other members without permission from leadership or specific knowledge that the person concerned should be an elder (like Thes after she returns from a visit to another clan...).

And most of all, recruit! We're always looking for great people and can never get too many of those! If you're looking for guidance on player levels/trophy count, then we generally look for silver level players (or better) or Level 40+. But use your judgement! We'd much rather have an awesome lvl 25 than an obnoxious lvl 70.

HabMcRuger's Theory of Donation Ratios

The issue of whether or not someone's ratio of donations vs. requests is a useful metric for kicking or promoting a member is a tricky one.  My answer is that, in general, above a certain donation level it is not.

Let start with the low donation count- 20/300 or 50/500.  That's pretty miserable and clearly indicates someone who might be taking advantage of the clan's generosity.

However… things get much more complicated when you're talking about highly active, very high donating players.  The problem is that donations are a zero sum game- for every troop received, someone's donation count goes up and vice versa.  This is where things get messy.

Imagine the simplest possible clan, with just two people.  Both players are always on together and will fulfill any request immediately.  Lets assume that they use their donations every time they fight (which seems like what we'd want players to do).  

What will their ratios be?

The answer is... it depends on how often they fight.  If both fight at basically the same rate, then their ratios will be even.  However, if one of them fights aggressively while the other prefers to chat, then the ratios will quickly go out of balance even though the clan is functioning perfectly and everyone is getting units as soon as they request.

When this scales up,  you see the process at work in our clan.  Different people fight differently, and that shifts ratios around. Take a player like "Thesaurus". She chats and donates way more than she fights. So her ratios are going to be much different than mine (because I fight much more than she does). For "ssmith" to donate 500, I have to request those 500 troops.  In the clan right now, "brueningb" has donated 1381 and received 240.  That's fabulous! He's helping out the clan immensely… but, if you get fixated on ratios, it also means that someone else (or several of us) have requested quite a few more troops. 

And that's when things break down.  As a member, if I want to make up those "extra" units, the only thing I can do to improve my ratio is to request less often... which is the opposite of how I think we all want the clan to work.  For my part, I want a clan where people feel free to request and donations are filled instantly.  Focusing on the ratio doesn't make that better.

Honestly, my big concern here is that focusing on the ratio puts our attention on the wrong thing.  I don't want people thinking "Have I requested to much?" or  "Am I donating enough?".  The "Have I requested to much?" is a recipe for a death spiral- people stop requesting, so people stop monitoring chat, so over all donations drop, so it's harder to recruit, etc, etc...  I know it's easy to feel "mooched" here, but if we say "people should be in balance", then the only way that can happen is for the high donators to donate less, which I'm not sure we want at all.

So, I don't want you to focus on your donations versus received troops. I want you to focus on having fun, engaging in chat, and learning new things. One of the elders will talk with you if we think your donations are too low or disproportionate. 

For Elder Discussion....


https://www.facebook.com/groups/597856176933410/

How to become an elder?

This is possibly the most common question that gets asked of us. So, how do you become an elder? It's pretty easy. Just follow these steps:

1. Donate...a lot. 
2. Be active in clan chat. Get to know the other members and elders. 
3. Be in the clan long enough for us to get to know you. We don't elder people that we don't know and trust. 

We put a lot of thought into who gets the "elder" title in our clan. And generally ask other elders to weigh-in on the decision. 

Making the wrong person elder can destroy a clan. Many of us have seen it...ask to hear horror stories if you want to. 

As the refrain goes: "Elder is earned, not given."

CLAN RULES

These are the basic clan rules. We expect everyone to follow them...no exceptions. If you don't follow the rules, you will be kicked out of the clan.

1. Be respectful of everyone at all times. Calling someone names (gay, retarded, stupid...) is not respectful. 
2. Swearing is frowned upon. 
3. Donate what you can, when you can. 
4. No discussing anything you wouldn't want your child, young sibling, or mother to hear. 
5. If you have a problem with someone else in the clan, please bring it up to an elder or the leader. Chances are it can be resolved without a lot of drama. 
6. Speaking of drama, we try to steer clear of it. 
7. Have fun, enjoy yourselves, and remember that this is just a game. 

Recruiting for our clan...

As a member of Veritas1, you are always welcome to recruit for our clan in Global Chat. However, we have some basic rules for that to help you find good people.

• Please make sure the player is Level 40 or above. 
• Don't promise something we can't deliver on.
• For example, we are not an adults or teen-only clan. 
• Or don't promise level 4 dragons.
• And please don't promise elder or co-leader.
• Please try to stay away from the really young members (under 10). While we do have some younger members, most of them are other member's children.
• If you're trying to recruit someone who is under our current trophy limit, we may make you a temporary co-leader (for the purposes of recruiting only). This is a decision that is made by the Clan Leader.  
• If the clan leader isn't on chat, tell the person you're trying to recruit to look us up when they get enough trophies. 
• Most of all, use your judgement! We'd much rather have an awesome lvl 25 than an obnoxious lvl 70.

Donation Guidelines

Hello All:

So there's been some questions about how donations work in our clan. Here's some general guidelines:

• Donate as often as you can. Remember, if you don't donate, you are in danger of being kicked. There may (or may not be) a warning before that happens. If you'd like to avoid being kicked, please make sure that your "donations given" stay relatively close to your "donations received". For instance a ratio of 10 to 200 will probably get you kicked, while a ratio of 360 to 500 is less likely to be kicked because it shows that you are actively trying to donate. The more you request, the more you should donate. 
• We have members who go on vacation, have important events, or who simply can't be on all the time. If you're planning on being a low donator for an extended period of time, let one (or more) of the elders know. 
• To avoid being on the "chopping block" keep your donations above 200 per every league season.  

• Be content with the troops you get. I know it would be great to always have a dragon or p.e.k.k.a in your clan house, but it's not possible.  Remember, higher level troops take time/money/resources to make. You may request a dragon, but it doesn't guarantee you'll get one. 

• Unless someone specifically asks, please don't donate wall breakers or goblins. Otherwise, donate what you can. If someone asks for something you don't have, you can donate or not. Generally, it's better to wait a few moments to see if someone has what they want. 

• When you request, don't ask for specific levels of troops (i.e. Level 3 dragons or level 5 giants). We have clan members who are at lower levels, and we want them to be able to donate as well. 

• If you see a new member (or even an old member) not following the guidelines, please inform them. Or, let an elder know. 

A quick welcome

Hey Veritas1 People!!

So, this is just a quick hello. We are going to use this place to post updates, have discussions, ask questions, and get our clan communicating in a different way.

We ask that you check in here regularly and feel free to post any questions or concerns.

Have a great day!

Hab and Thes!