-- -=[LOD]=-OldN@der<br /><br />I suggested this before and since it seems you very strongly want members to participate as well as play, I recommend a member email list.  Once, you emailed to me that there was a vote.  I went, I reviewed, I voted.  I didn&#39;t know about the second (or 1st) vote.  Any time there are important notices, votes or things that every member should see, shoot one mass email.<br /><br />For some us us (I work two or three jobs - AutoMatchCARS which yall know, I also design web sites and web marketing toru the Netrepreneurs division of AutoMatchCARS and I also sell Mortgages and Refinances) there isn&#39;t the time needed to daily check out all of the site.  Frankly, there isn&#39;t enough activity on the site to find something new every day.  Or at least it seems that way from the ten or so times I have been here.<br /><br />Back in April of 1998, my wife and I moved to Louisville, Ky.  Within a month, I had found a group of friends that played foosball.  They kept talking about this cool computer game that they knew I would like.  For my birthday, May 7th, they got me a copy of Half Life and we had a 72 hour gaming session at my house.  I had a four story big house there and we ran cat cables through the air ducts from the basement, main floor and 2nd story where my office was.  We had 10 computers hooked up on lan.  We didn&#39;t play on the Internet back then.  Frankly, I didn&#39;t really like it.  It got old real fast.  Run and gun and die and comeback to life and run and gun.  Sort of more of a kids game.  I got bored and quit playing (I am sure it didn&#39;t have any thing to do with the fact that they all kicked my butte, HaHa&#33;)<br /><br />Then, a year later, Sierra was going to release Counter Strike in June of 1999.  My buddies were beta testers and they downloaded Counter Strike on my computers for my birthday (May 7th remember).  We had another 72 hours marathon.  This time we had 20 computers hooked up to the Internet.  I love Counter Strike in the de especially but also es and cs maps.  I don&#39;t really like the fy maps or awp rooftops and treetops because there is no strategy.  The de and maps with a mission require teamwork, planning and strategy.<br /><br />We called our selves the (Red) Clan.  I built a site and things started rolling from there.  We went on recruiting binges, kept in the forums making challenges and usually had two to three Clan matches a week.  I was only working one job then at home.  I would play till dead and then sell cars.  I spent a lot of time &quot;running&quot; the clan.  Keep in mind, AutoMatchCARS is a multi level marketing plan for cars.  The clan was sponsored by AutoMatchCARS and I wrote everything off as a business expense.  At the peak, we had close to 1000 members all over the world.  I had them out finding people that wanted to buy or sell a car.  Sweet huh?<br /><br />We had so many members, we had (Red1), )Red2) and so on up to (Red20).  These were the elite players.  On Monday nites, we had intra clan skirmishes to establish who got to play in the real clan matches on Friday at 6.30 (that gave us time to play, get drunk and then go play foosball) and Sunday afternoons.  For the matches, you changed your name from (Red)Deathlord or what ever to (Red1)1, (Red1)2 etc.  That really messed up the competition.  <br /><br />(Red)Deathlord was our best player.  He always used an awp.  I wasn&#39;t any better then than I am now, mostly 9 kills 9 deaths per map so I covered for Deathlord.  I watched his back since you can&#39;t see well with an awp.  My favorite was when a couple of bad guys knew where we were and we had had a slight skirmish.  I knew I had hit them some so here goes a nade for a double kill&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33; I was called (Red)Aln back then.  All my clan mates respected how I would get close to a double nade kill about every other map.  They MADE me cnahge my name from (Red)Aln to (Red)Grenadier.  Pronounced grin a deer.  I got sick of numbskulls and kids calling me Grenader pronounced grenade er, so I changed it to OldN@der.  I guess that was about 2000 or 2001.<br /><br />At the college in Louisville, they have a annual computer gaming session (72 hours of course) called LanWar.  See: <a href="http://www.lanwar.com/News.asp?Process=DISPLAY" target="_blank">http://www.lanwar.com/News.asp?Process=DISPLAY</a> .  The Louisville branch of (Red) or (Red1) won the Counter Strike War there in in think 2001.  We got about &#036;500 worth of computer equipment each for that.  <br /><br />The next year, there was a gaming bar in Lexington that kept a CS Server up all the time that sponsored a tournament.  We played on the server a lot and the people that played at the bar knew and feared us.  I forget but it was like a &#036;5000 tournament with first place team getting like &#036;2000 or something.  Of course, AutoMatchCARS sponsored (Red1) to play.  One of the guys in the clan printed tshirts as a business.  We went all wearing matching tshirts with AutoMatchCARS.com on the shoulder, (Red1) on the back in huge letters and each of our names on the front.  When we walked into the bar in unison, you could actually hear those guys bones shaking.  It was hilarious.  They were totally freaked out.  Of course, we kicked butte UNTIL the last match for first or second.  There were these 5 13 year old kids we were supposed to play.  Two of them had to go home so it was three 13 year olds and their two moms.  WE GOT BEAT.  I didn&#39;t like that.  But we had a lot of fun.<br /><br />The reason I tell all this is because, Commando, I KNOW how much effort you can spend.  I would send one email to all 980something members with this weeks schedule.  I answered about 50 emails from other clans to coordinate the Friday and Sunday matches.   I would never want your job again.  Too much work for too many people that are not appreciative.<br /><br />But .. none the less, if you simply email announcements when needed, you will get the best participation.<br /><br />Thanks for listening and Happy Fraggin&#33;<br /><br />-=[LOD]=-OldN@der <img src="http://www.clanlod.net/ipb/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheeky-smiley-005.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheeky-smiley-005:" border="0" alt="cheeky-smiley-005.gif" /> <br /><br />PS, here is a photo of the founding fathers of (Red)  I am the one on the far right.<br /><br /><br /><br />Allen Howe<br />AutoMatchCARS.com<br />800-962-2771<br />727-535-9520<br />309-407-1208  Fax<br />aln@automatchcars.com<br /><br />FREE CLASSIFIEDS<br />www.amcars.net<br /><br />Cell 727-798-7708<br />Cell email: alncell@gmail.com<br /><br />Internet Marketing, Design and Web Pages<br /><a href="http://automatchcars.com/netrepreneurs/index.html" target="_blank">http://automatchcars.com/netrepreneurs/index.html</a>