Pointless writing

DeletedUser

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Saw your piece of pointless writing, contemplated for a while and decided to write my own piece of dribble about SPAM, before we became well known.

SPAM (Chapter 1: A rough Beginning):

To know a little about SPAM and what it is all about, you need a little backstory. METAL was an old tribe I founded in World 51. 23 members, extremely elitist, a priority on internal atmosphere, sticking to a certain set of values (which I don't have time to get into) and stability over all other things, METAL was an awesome tribe that was around for about 7 months. One has to ask why an awesome tribe like METAL plunged whereas an alright tribe like Axte managed to win W51. The answer to that is quite complex, but can be boiled down to one major factor: location. METAL was a small rim tribe based in K86/87 and was not a premade of any kind, we had fun, no matter of the strategic consequences and one of those consequences was fighting a tribe ten times our size.

This brings us to November 12th 2011. I decided for some obscure reason that I wanted to repeat METAL, but we would win as well this time. In those two days, I found 15 players, 10 or so from METAL, 5 from World 56 who preregistered with me to make the backbone of SPAM. The direction we chose was North East so ended up in K45 when the world started on the 14th. I did not like our spread so made everyone restart about a day later in the same direction. We landed in K35/36/46, of which we chose to focus on K36 where 8 of our members ended up. The rest of our guys joined other tribes or quit.

At this stage, the backbone was broken and we had a dilemma. Whilst it was perfectly possible to make SPAM succeed within K36, it was very difficult to do without sacrificing values gotten from METAL. One value in particular was very important to keeping up member standards, but was hard to maintain without having an already established base. This value entailed that in order to join SPAM, one had to request to join first. In essence, SPAM did not send out recruitment mails like similar tribes in the area, putting us at a clear disadvantage. It was for this reason that I thought SPAM would probably not do very well and changed the plan to grow until nobles and then merge into RatedR, another NE premade run by a friend of mine.

Fortunately, quite soon after that, I thought of a solution which changed SPAM's destiny in K36 and transformed us into a more serious contender within the NE. The plan was basically to make SPAM fill a niche in K36, the elite tribe. Although SPAM was by no means an elite tribe, containing mostly players from a rim tribe in W51, we managed to pull it off because I managed to pointwhore myself to rank 1 in K36, which started a conversation with the former rank one player doogology, who soon joined SPAM. This was a key moment as his presence in SPAM attracted other big names within the K (as he soon became the top ranked player after my pointwhoring started to not pay off) such as bladesorrow and twbutch3r.

By this point, we were rank 4 in the K and a variety of other tribes in the K saw our threat and decided they wanted to get rid of us. We won this conflict quite handily due to better organisation and stronger players. SPAM ended up taking rank 1 in the K as tribes above us disbanded and we kept adding members. This takes us through the first month of SPAM's history and to a point where our biggest players had around 3-4 villages and to the end of chapter 1 of our history.
 
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DeletedUser

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Glad to have played such a pivotal role in SPAM. Can I take all the credit for the current tribe :)
 

DeletedUser

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doogology said:
Glad to have played such a pivotal role in SPAM. Can I take all the credit for the current tribe :)
Click to expand...

Well it wasn't just you, but you were probably the first major player outside of the METAL Core to join from K36. Basically it consisted of SPAM deceiving people in K36 into thinking that were a elite tribe to attract player's attention when we really weren't. The fact that you were top at the time helped attract other top players *cue snowball effect*
 
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DeletedUser

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SPAM (Chapter 2: Lots of Territory Wars):

So where were we? SPAM has just gotten through its first month and taken top spot in K36. The date is somewhere between 10th-14th December and SPAM is somewhere between rank 21-25 in the world with 23 members and around 40 villages. SPAM now looks to solidify its territory within K36 but has many outside threats. Due to SPAM's lack of members and low rank, over the next few months, other tribes attempt to bully SPAM out of K36 and take it for themselves. This is the story of how SPAM deals with these threats.

There are 4 tribes that are major threats to SPAM's precarious position in the K. The first and by far the biggest of the threats (at that current moment) is H D. H D was an 80 man tribe, rank 7-9 in the world, based in K35 with a core leadership from .co.uk. They already had a foothold in the West of K36 and were planning to expand there, threatening to cut SPAM off from the north west part of K36. They chose K36 as an option simply because it was the weakest of the Ks, being surrounded by -RLS- to the north (who I will get onto next), TRAIN to the south and Valour to the west. The second threat, which whilst largely ignored for now, will become a bigger problem later is -RLS-. They were rank 11 at the time, based in K25/26 and had just started recruiting a few members in K36. Also there were NiNi. (rank 14) who were creeping along the top of K46 and Dukiez (not sure about the rank) who were a smaller tribe like ours but contained some big hitters like La Flama Blanca.

On the 14th December, SPAM started going on a recruiting spree due to the increase of our influence. Due to my friend Hans tribe (RatedR) falling, SPAM got 3 more members. This allowed SPAM to break into the top 20, becoming rank 19 on the 16th December. More importantly for the plot, SPAM recruited jonting21 from H D, which flared up tensions between the two tribes. H D and SPAM started getting into talks about K36/35 and H D wanted a chunk of K36 in the NW. We were having none of that so Opped H D, as well as recruiting Horror o0o from H D, in K36 just before the attack break on December 23rd. This removed the problem of H D in K36 but the hostilities would flare up again in the coming months. This would be the same day as Dukiez dissolved and we would recruit La Flama Blanca.

In the first week of January, despite still having lingering H D and -RLS- threats, SPAM declared war on NiNi. who had started majorly recruiting in K36 after failing to secure K46, which would be SPAM's first war against a top 10 tribe. The reason was a combination of me not liking the leader and recruitment in our territory (you will find this the reason for almost all SPAM wars). SPAM ran away with it from the start, winning 64-6 over the month of january. Whilst this was going on, SPAM would declare war on another tribe for exactly the same reason as we declared on NiNi. This tribe was -RLS- (who was rank 5 in the world) and had just gained rank 3/4 in K36.

This happened on the 11th January 2012 and was to become SPAM's first major test against a decent tribe. Although -RLS- lacked strong leadership, they were one of the strongest offensive forces in world 60. Just a quick update on the ranks at on the 11th January:

(the points is points of top 40, villages is total villages)

-RLS-: Rank 5, 62 members, 1.26 million, 301 villages
H D: Rank 8, 73 members, 1.07 million points, 293 villages
SPAM: Rank 11, 23 members, 870k points, 162 villages
NiNi.: Rank 14, 51 members, 690k points, 180 villages

At this point in time it was SPAM vs -RLS- and NiNi., though SPAM still had bad relations with H D.

SPAM started off very well against -RLS-, going 5-1 on the first 48 hours. Then it started stalemating. The two leaderships, despite disliking each other a lot, managed to work out a peace on the 24th January for different reasons. SPAM's main problem was a slowed growth (fighting against two bigger tribes takes its toll as SPAM would learn again and again) as well as warning bells that H D was going to join in. -RLS- had to contend with a crumbling frontline as well as internal problems due to not doing well against a tribe a lot smaller than it. The war ended SPAM 14, -RLS- 10. A subsequent NAP was created, which was SPAM's first diplomacy in W60.

On the 28th January, we would start skirmishing against /// in K37, a mini expansion attempt as well as an Op on the 28th at 23:00ST (which would become the standard land time for all of SPAM's Ops), getting rid of the rest of H D still remaining in K36. This attack was extremely successful, nearly resulting in the rimming of H D's baron Gblitz (he had a safe village in the middle of H D in K35). H D were understandably not too happy about this and declared war on us.

Another update on the ranks on 29th January:

-RLS-: Rank 8, 39 members, 2.25 million points, 354 villages
H D: Rank 9, 68 members, 2.18 million points, 447 villages
SPAM: Rank 11, 22 members, 1.87 million points, 283 villages

By this time NiNi. had fallen out of the top 20 and was around rank 21-25. /// was also rank 21-25.

SPAM started relatively well against H D, although they had more villages and were able to turtle against SPAM, we pushed them back into K35 being 15-4 up in the first 3 days. On that 3rd day (1st february), we would declare war on None. They were the top tribe in K37, rank 27 at the time and this war would last 1 day and 1 hour until None disbanded, SPAM winning 11-0. The wars against H D and NiNi. would continue until the 12th February which SPAM would embark on two more wars, one against TRAIN (which would largely be LFB) and one against a rank 50 or so tribe called WAR.D in the north east of K36.

On the 17th February, the /// skirmish would become a full out conflict and SPAM would merge in Fail (NONE's replacement in K37) to help this. Unfortunately, due to the incompatibility of the two tribes, SPAM would kick all 5 members just 12 hours after their recruitment. On the 18th, SPAM would officially declare on TRAIN, two days before it disbanded. On the 26th, SOV (a tribe based in K47/57) would be replaced by SmexC, whose initial talks with SPAM would not go well, this will become important later.

SPAM would continue working on ///, the remains of NiNi. and H D until the start of March. On March 1st, -RLS- would launch a surprise attack into SPAM out of the NAP.

A quick update on 1st March:

-RLS-: Rank 4, 36 members, 7.55 million points, 1035 villages
SPAM: Rank 6, 20 members, 5.41 million points, 654 villages
H D: Rank 11, 50 members, 4.01 million points, 555 villages
///: Rank 19, 37 members, 2.18 million points, 330 villages

SPAM vs H D: 49-21
SPAM vs ///: 23-3
SPAM vs NiNi.: 60-3

here is a map (link) of the situation, focus on the North East with SPAM in pink and top in K36 and K37 (barely), -RLS- in dark blue and top in K25/26, H D top in K35 and in the light blue and /// in the black and top in K47. Other major players in the area are SmexC in the orange and SLAP in the green.

SPAM vs -RLS-, H D, /// and NiNi. (approx rank 40-50 and crumbled so I didn't include em)
654 villages vs 1920 villages
20 members vs 123 members

How did SPAM survive? All in the next chapter.
 
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DeletedUser

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turtles_html.jpg


j/k

I have to admit, I'm extremely interested in this recounting of your tribe, because there are many parallels to my own past tribe on w32, with the exception that you played most of the world as the underdog.

Set op times, constant wars, core backbone, set values. Few truly realize how important these things are to long term success. I personally believe keeping high activity levels through entertainment, to be one of the most important ingredients in a recipe for success. And once you have those ingredients, even if you fail, often a tribe feels a great amount of success in it.

I wish I'd kept a journal or some such thing of the various things that happened on w32 so I could put a recounting together.
 
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DeletedUser

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Dylan, the only way for SPAM to win the world is to go back to the famous 23 member count:icon_cool:
 

DeletedUser

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Louis:$ we should merge most accounts to get to the famous 23:D
 

DeletedUser

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SPAM (Chapter 3: The Crisis):

The date is 1st March 2012 and -RLS- has declared on SPAM. If you crunch the number from the last chapter, SPAM is outnumbered 3-1 on villages and 6-1 on members. Of course SPAM has dealt with this sort of numbers disadvantage before earlier in the game, but there are a few factors that made this war a lot harder than previous wars. The main two were the size of the front, which extended around 3/4 of SPAM's border but more importantly the fact that one of the wars was with -RLS-. I have touched on this a little before, but -RLS-, as a tribe, is a lot stronger than H D and ///. /// is a relatively small tribe which we would stop invading, which would reduce hostilities throughout the war (we will ignore them in this chapter). H D was a large turtly tribe but neither had a strong member base or strong leadership but had a certain tenacity to it. I have written quite a long essay about why H D failed as a tribe and will try to find it. -RLS- was a bitch to deal with. Although they did not have SPAM's co-ordination or a smart leadership (in fact the lack of these things was probably why they did not win the world), they had lots of extremely aggressive players who would dump nukes and nobles on the frontline.

This was a problem due to the way SPAM conducted wars at the time. Generally we would be at war with 3-4 tribes or so at one time. Each enemy would be assigned 3 or 4 frontliners as the main attackers, who would soak up enemy fire with support supplied by 6-8 or so defensive members in the tribe and then gradually inch forward into enemy territory. Unlike a lot of other top tribes at the time (excluding the turtles), with the exception of a few of our players, SPAM was stronger defensively. SPAM advanced into its enemies using testudo (or tortoise) formation. In our average conflict with serious tribes, SPAM's enemies would bash a bit against the defense, they would fail and then SPAM would advance into the enemy territory. This was fine against H D and /// who were your standard barbarian horde. -RLS- was like a tribe full of beserkers. 1 and 3/4 times our size as well as dumping most of their nukes on a front that wasn't properly prepared.

Needless to say, SPAM lost quite a few villages in the first week and the fact that -RLS- front needed more defense made other fronts weaker and we started losing a little against H D too. Although we had started turning the fight around, things were not looking too good. I believe we would have eventually won the fight, but at a huge cost to growth and territory which would have been hard to recover from. With that in mind, SPAM devised a second plan which would, although not benefit SPAM hugely territory wise, get rid of two tribes that really disliked SPAM's guts and replace them with three more neutral tribes. This would be the first and last time SPAM used diplomatic maneuvering to win a fight.

Key to the success of this plan would be -RLS-, whose leader Dwild was nearly as disliked as I was in the North East (might write a section on some side stories about SPAM's Values and why everyone hated us instead of writing up the Calm. war (will do that when it is finished) after doing the smexC war). At the time -RLS- had an NAP with BONN as well as an alliance with Valour, this would change shortly.

SPAM had a few things to work with:

1. -RLS- Surprise break of the NAP and declaration on SPAM.
2. A piece of information from -RLS- detailing their plan to backstab BONN after the SPAM war.
3. 7SF's war with H D.
4. -RLS- and H D's primary focus on SPAM
5. Valour's alliance with 7SF and BONN

The first step was painting -RLS- as backstabbers. This was relatively easy and was done both on the forums and on skype when I was introduced to the leaders of 7SF, Valour and BONN (using 1. + 2.). Because of the information about the backstabbing with BONN (2.) as well as their lack of expansion room, they declared war on -RLS- on the 9th March. This attack was made more successful because -RLS- had no defense there to defend against BONN (4.). Furthermore, Valour was brought in against H D and -RLS- due to their alliance with BONN and 7SF (5.). The war was now a 2v4:

-RLS- and H D vs SPAM, 7SF, BONN and Valour

The diplomatic turnaround was complete. -RLS- would crumble just 9 days later on the 18th March due to losing on both fronts due to inactivity and bans and would merge into H D. SPAM would start having major success against ex-RLS- in K35/36/26 with two successful Ops against fantomexloa and bristolpete, essentially driving them out of K36 as well as recruiting two ex-RLS- players (juanune and phpflash). This success would continue against H D who were crumbling in K35 due to attacks from 7SF and SPAM and Valour (to a small extent). On the 5th April, -RLS- would leave H D and create Misc. H D would fall apart on the 15th April and be recruited mostly by 7SF.

Successful negotiations with Misc. for a merger (the major condition being a declaration on BONN, who would speed merge into Valour as soon as SPAM declared) would secure SPAM's position as top dog in the North East, which would take place on the 14th April and place SPAM on the world stage. SPAM would also make its second NAP, which would become SPAM's first alliance (about 6 months into the game), with 7SF.

Ranks before mergers (14th April 2012):

7SF: Rank 5, 72 members, 13.45 million, 1865 villages
SPAM: Rank 7, 17 members, 9.22 million, 1003 villages

SPAM (Post merge (16th April 2012)):

SPAM: Rank 4, 26 members, 19.38 million, 2108 villages
7SF: Rank 5, 84 members, 18.52 million, 2250 villages

A look at the map (link).

SPAM = Blue
SmexC = Light Blue
SLAP = Green
BONN = Orange
Valour = Red
7SF = Pink

(full list of ranks (link)).

Next Chapter, SPAM's war with SmexC, conflict with Valour and more.
 
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DeletedUser

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Mel i have run out of nobles though :(

Stupid Calm they just such easy food :(
 

DeletedUser105935

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Nemisis I keep reading and I want mopped more more lol you should right a novel
 

DeletedUser

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Dylan is a good writer, but in this case its what he is writing that is so special <3

Taylor
 
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DeletedUser

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SPAM (Chapter 4: On the Big stage):

It is the 16th April and finally SPAM is on the big stage. Although SPAM (rank 4) is top dog within the small sphere of the north east, controlling K25/26/36/37 and parts of K46 and K35, they still have to share the rest of the NE with 5 major tribes. They would be Valour (Rank 1), 7SF (Rank 6), SmexC (Rank 5), SLAP (Rank 3) and BONN (Rank 12). This period was one of maturation for SPAM as the game started getting into the middlegame. This meant less scraps with other tribes and slightly more respect for one another. Despite this, SPAM would manage to piss off all but one of these tribes over the coming months.

The first tribe SPAM would piss off was BONN. As part of the condition for the Misc. merger, SPAM would declare on BONN on the 14th April 2012. BONN, co-incidentally would merge into Valour on the same day. This would cause inevitable problems with ex-RLS- members, who wanted to fight BONN, and Valour. SPAM, quite cheekily, called refugee on the members from BONN, despite only being at war for 2 days. Of course, expecting negotiations to break down, we prepared for a fight. There was a state of cold war between Valour and SPAM for about 2 weeks. Meanwhile, on the 18th April, Egg, a 1 man tribe led by lmavor who had been isolated from 7SF as part of SPAM/7SF negotiations for the H D war, declared on SPAM. The declaration was largely ignored by SPAM and he was slowly chomped by 7SF/SPAM. Such was one of many examples of noobs in SPAM territory that SPAM cleared up during the cold war with Valour.

On the 24th April, La Flama Blanca would launch on SLAP quite successfully whilst they were at war with SmexC, pissing off SLAP a lot. This would actually turn to our advantage because it would lessen the strain on our conflict with Valour, due to Valour thinking that SPAM were going to engage with SLAP instead of them as well as Sp.ag's (the leader of Valour) plan to fell SLAP. This, as well as some long and hard negotiation on my part would start an NAP between SPAM and Valour on the 27th April. Things were smoothed over with SLAP due to La Flama Blanca being given an ultimatum with regards to his attacks to SLAP and subsequently joining 7SF. This meant that from the 27th, SPAM would start one of the longest relatively peaceful periods in its history (around 2 weeks).

No recruitment, no-one leaving other than dismissals due to activity, no major wars, life was easy in SPAM whilst several tribes around it were floundering.

SLAP was undoubtedly the "sick man" of the East. On the 20th April, SmexC would declare on SLAP and recruit a group of players based in K56, I will refer to them as Ex-SLAP from now on, from SLAP upon declaration. This would severely hamper SLAP's ability to fight back. The war would end on the 8th May 2012, when SLAP merged into 7SF. 7SF, despite jumping into rank 3, would soon replace SLAP as the "sick man". Their main problem was a gangbang by Valour (Rank 1) who they had fallen out of favor with, Calm. (Rank 2) and SmexC (Rank 4). Remember that I told you earlier that SPAM was allies with 7SF. This would be our excuse for the next SPAM war.

In chapter 3, I stated that SPAM's first meeting with SmexC did not go very well, mainly due to them wanting territory that was already SPAMs. Because of this, I decided that SmexC would be SPAM's next war. There was quite a build up of tension to this and on the 15th May 2012, we would declare. Although this was a favour to an ally, SPAM had doubts that 7SF would survive too long due to a lot of pressure so did not declare on Valour as well. Instead forging an alliance with Valour in order to avoid the problem of an obligation to declare altogether. The key front would be K37 and how our eastern members faced up with their northern ones.

Stats (15th May 2012):

Calm: Rank 1, 39 members, 60.6 million, 6485 villages
Valour: Rank 2, 67 members, 57.7 million, 8003 villages
7SF: Rank 3, 89 members, 39.0 million, 6019 villages
SmexC: Rank 4, 37 members, 37.7 million, 4114 villages
SPAM: Rank 5, 22 members, 27.0 million, 2932 villages

A map (link) of the situation

SPAM = Light blue
SmexC = Dark Blue
Valour = Yellow
7SF = Green
Calm. = Red

It turns out that SPAM's eastern members would quite easily win the battle against SmexC's northern members and would advance freely into SmexC for the majority of the war, including a very good timed Op on the 18th May, gaining lot of villages off a duke of SmexC who had fallen 'inactive' on recieving incomings. Knowing the SmexC war was going to be a walk in the park due to SmexC's lack of activity and leadership (at least for the moment), SPAM declared war on rank 11 EN$VY which would also proceed smoothly despite being fought mostly by 1 member. SPAM would continue storming into K37, taking over the parts that SPAM didn't already have by the 6th June, when 7SF would finally fall apart and the strong members form Error. Error would stop their wars with Calm. and Valour but continue their war with SmexC, who were now virtually broken.

The story will continue on the 19th June 2012. Chapter 5: SPAM becomes a powerhouse.
 
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DeletedUser

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SPAM: (Chapter 5: SPAM becomes a powerhouse)

This chapter is going to be a short one, just detailing the summer months before the next major war on the 28th August 2012. On June 19th, SPAM (rank 4) is fighting SmexC (rank 3), Envy (Rank 8) and |-S-| (Rank 13). Despite this, SPAM is at its most prosperous, both wars going very well for SPAM. SPAM is up 164-16 in the SmexC war and 188-64 in the Envy war (|-S-| was just easy expansion). Over the next month, SPAM will evolve into debatably the most powerful tribe in world 60. This is the summary of the evolution into that tribe as well as our gradual increase in member count from the legendary number 23.

The first step would be a merger with Error. This would happen on June 19th 2012 and would provide SPAM a hefty bunch of the Core and K46/47, with a larger front with SmexC.

(Before) + (After)

SPAM would finally become part of the top 3 in the world, being about 10 million smaller than Calm. and Valour. This would shift the balance of power quite a bit in W60 and essentially screw any chance of a SmexC comeback. This would start a slowing down against SmexC over the next month or so. Not much other than a continuation of the three wars would happen until 23rd July. By this time SmexC had fallen apart, helped by the recruitment of ex-SLAP members (the same group that left SLAP to SmexC) to Calm.

This allowed the recruitment of the rest of the active members of SmexC into SPAM on the 23rd July. This would actually cause SPAM to overtake Valour in the rankings into second place and 3 million points behind calm.

Heres a map (link) of the world. SPAM is in yellow, Valour in Green, Calm in Red, NADs in Blue. Here is a link of the rankings table at the time (link).

The date is 23rd July, just 1 month before the start of the Calm. war. SPAM has become fully realized and is arguably (it is arguable since the -RLS- merge but there is a stronger case now) the strongest tribe in W60. All that is left is to prove it.

The 6th and perhaps final installment will cover the lead-up to and action of the Calm. war. This will be done after the war has been won or lost.
 
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DeletedUser

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I like the parts where Dylan wrote a child size storybook :) and -RLS-,Error and SmexC Merges were mentioned, showing the world we arent scared of being judged by merging
 

DeletedUser

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I think there is a big difference from being scared to merge due to the opinion of the masses, and scared to merge due to the long term effects it can have in a tribe (ie. miscommunication, factions etc.... )

At one point Dylan mentions bringing people in, and then booting them less than 24 hours later because they were incompatible.. Perhaps a little rash (perhaps made due to concern of being judged?), because it's hard to believe someone could make an accurate judgement call that quickly (I say that not knowing the full scenario), or pure brilliance for recognizing that early it wasn't going to work, either way I think it's more noteworthy that Dylan is willing to put his tribe out there (at risk of public opinion), and then admit it was a mistake by rectifying it (which some would say puts you more at risk of public opinion, because often people will try again and again to go back to that mistake as a failure).

The reality on mistakes, is that we are all human, and everyone makes them. Instead of being afraid to make them, leaders should be willing to make them (smartly of course), learn, and adapt from them to become better leaders.

Ps. I have to say, I'm enjoying this topic, mostly from the contributions Kanip and Dylan put in, but also because I feel free to join the conversation for once! Would love to see some other leaders, or important figures contribute some writing, so I/we could get some insight on their perspectives!
 
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