I wouldn't recommend handing out invites, but I do agree with talking to new faces.  It is a good way to determine if someone is a dumbass, before they are in your family.

I remember when people within the crew would talk to the newbies, and if they felt that they were good enough, they would pass the name on to those above.  but I think what has happened is, with only 48 hours of safety, people have started to scramble for families.  And while I understand the -48 rule I remember when crew members would speak with you, rp with you, ask you if you needed help to get yourself straight and then tell their boss about you.  And they would vouch for you, it was their word and their boss' trust that got you a meeting with the Ptb within the organization.

I think that's a fantasist ideal that you're remembering with extremely rose tinted spectacles.

I think member whoring is smart. The more associates you have working for you, the more money you make. And it's all about making money.

But saying that, to officially induct just anyone into the inner folds of our thing (read: promote to Made Man) is just plain odd. It would be like specifically inviting a friend's friend (who you might only have met once or twice, and briefly at that) to your wedding. Very strange, indeed.

You think member whoring is smart until someone comes along and shoots you for doing it. Just because there is not a crewleader around at the moment who would do that does not mean one won't come along. We have surely seen that happen enough in the past.

And Carlotta, what do you mean by "what has happened is, with only 48 hours of safety"? There was a very brief moment in time when Marietta mandated a longer protection time, but other than that very brief moment, there has never been a time when a longer protection period was offered. In fact, it has only been a few years that ANY sort of protection was enforced. Back in the old days crewleaders paid lip service to protection of unsponsored, but it was never, never, ever enforced. And guess what? People still managed to find their way into families, and they had to work to do it. It just took a little brains and ingenuity...something that is sorely lacking in the present day.

Have to agree with Tito on this one, its just way to easy to get a family nowadays. You don't even have to go out, talk to people and make you own because someone will come to you. I understand the arguments that there is more competition for members nowadays etc but if your family is good enough people will come to you.

I remember the days before people were quite so trigger happy, when a rule of 48 was Unneccessary.  Like I said I've been playing since the old .org days, and I remember when the game went at a slower pace.  Where a six month or one year old account was not unheard of.  In other words before Vday one. 

There was no need for protection because the game moved slower.  I'm not saying it is a bad thing, Just that when the game sped up to the point where a rule of 48 was needed, things began to change.

As to the rose-colored glasses, I don't really think so. the world in the Five Cities was different than it is now.  I'm not saying that we should go back to that.  But I do wish that we had more recruitment the way we did back then.  I was the recruiter for the crew back when I was chylz because I was an RPer so I would find the newbies who would ask to join the RP without a famliy to speak of, I'd talk to them, I'd help them work out how to talk to a boss, and then I'd point them in the direction of mine if I thought they were worth their salt.  And I would MM my boss and tell him they were coming and why I felt our family was a good fit.  That is how Recruiting should be, in my opinion, but, then we had a much slower game back then and could afford to take days or a week to talk to a newbie.

I may be wrong, and I don't claim to know much.  But that is how I see things.  I don't know maybe I'm just a little nostalgic.

"I remember the days before people were quite so trigger happy, when a rule of 48 was Unneccessary"

If you go back even further in history, you will find out that even thugs could be killed and shooters would sit there waiting for new players to register and kill em. and then since there was no timer, they would kill them right away again.

So, what we learn here is that from the beginning the streets have been violent and newcommers have been shot in the face.