What being a Clan Leader taught me

The first time you are a clan leader you are only training to become one
Not all players will share your ideals
Most players won’t share your vision
But you need to stick to it and not be influenced by anyone
It is very rare to find good random players and good random people. When you find them, cherish them and keep contact for next servers.
If you play on H5 private servers, you will not have variety of players, since the international community is both very small and inexperienced in the game. H5 private servers are dominated by 90% by Russians. If you start on a server as a 10% minority there is little to no chance for success.
Members don’t care about the welfare of the clan as a whole. They are there for their own personal gain.
As a clan leader you need to appeal to the players vanity and not show that you are trying to create a strong community
If you are a selfless leader and you invest your time in organisational and strategical duties (recruiting, informing, setting up social media platforms etc) your character will suffer and wont get levels.
Players don’t respect a selfless leader who works behind the scenes to improve the general environment (like getting people to make parties, educating them, managing a clan hall, fort sieges etc).
Clan members want the leader to have the highest level and the best gear.
You don’t create a clan alone, without at least one dedicated co-leader. Trying to find a co-leader and captains inside a new server is almost impossible. The leadership of the clan needs to be online a lot, otherwise it appears as if the clan is inactive. Having two leaders will make it easier for you to spend some time offline and not be glued to the screen the whole day…
A clan needs at least 2 leaders, one to take over the recruiting and the social promotion, and one to take over the financial and functional details. Ideally, you should enter a server with a full cp as the core of your clan. These players would be people you met in previous servers or real life friends you know you can count on. Most of the times, someone from the team quits, so 2 friends are not enough. I would say you need at least 4 trusted friends: a leader, a co-leader and 2 captains. This way you can be sure you have people to party with and rush for xp and still manage a clan, without falling behind in levels.
In the beginning of the clan, don’t set any rules for recruiting. This will allow you to dismiss people easily, without being bound by an application. Simply invite people who seem to be active, who will help you level up the clan and quickly dismiss those who don’t play enough.
Once your clan has gained a respectable level and has some accomplishments, set rules for membership and never hesitate to dismiss bad apples.
Spend but very little time chatting with members. If you chat with them a lot, this shows you don’t have anything better to do, you are not busy enough leveling. You need to maintain a distance from members, otherwise they will keep messaging all the time and you won’t be doing anything else all day but listening to their demands…
As a clan leader you need to have a thick skin. L2 is a game without subscription. This means that any sad Mary can enter the game and ruin your clan and your gaming with their drama. This is another reason why you should not chat with members. But when you do, don’t listen to their “ideas”….
I would recommend donating in the beginning of a server, in order to have the necessary boost that will allow you not to rely on contributions by members. Members who contribute will have demands that will cause more trouble and disturbance than the benefits of the contributions…
As a clan leader you should not become involved in trolling posts. Remain true to yourself and remain diplomatic. In the official servers there are less trolls, in private servers though, chaos reigns…
In the beginning maintain a low profile until the clan gets strong. Adversaries and competitors will target you and your clan, if they see you are getting good or have great potential. They will try to ruin your reputation with lies and spread propaganda. Never engage those trolls and keep your attention on your goals. It is enough for 1 negative person to create havoc in a server or clan so you need to have devised a plan of defense against those.
If you are a solo clan leader, you cannot be a top player. Great players do not have the time to invest in organising a community. Clan leaders should have great leadership skills, great gaming skills are not necessary but they should have a deep understanding of the chronicle and the game.