by Sir Anastasia » Fri May 24, 2013 1:15 pm
Ugh, tough questions. I like your solution to the inactive realms.
But, I can say that having only the Bel realms on the map makes it difficult for me when I tell my Dag brothers and sisters that I support them equally. This may not be true for all regions, but in California and (I suspect Florida?), the line between the two sports is non-existent. There are people here who have been Bel fighters since the beginning and they start both Dag and Bel realms. Also, it makes areas like San Fran look barren, when there are groups there that fight, that support BftR (one of our larger more nationally attended events), that go to events regionally, and also attend Chaos Wars. In this case, not referring to the most established group in that area hurts my Bel realm, other Bel realms, and multiple Bel events because new fighters are mis-directed to defunct groups or groups with less organization. If you mention the dag realms in California on this map, I personally will see those recruited fighters at California events because that is the model we have here. If you don't list these groups, the attendance at local, regional, and nationally attended events suffers a potential decline. A policy of exclusion will do harm; I do not see any benefit of this policy for my region.
Potential Options
1) Just list the realms that want to be listed, regardless of sport.
2) For each state/region link the sites that have all groups first (e.g. California Foam Fighters is the first listed contact for California). List that groups exist in a city but direct them to the page with the other info (e.g. Cali Foam Fighters). That way people are referred correctly via geographical location, but non-Bel details are left off our page.
3) Other
TLDR: A rising tide lifts all boats in this case. Promote friendly groups to have their continued attendance at events and practices. We have adopted this policy and have seen 378% growth at our major event in 5 years. Others will also have data on the success of this model. If you have data on a different model, now is the time to come forward with numbers to show your case.
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