A little over 5 years ago I left my clan of 2 years and started a new clan from scratch.
I set the entry requirements as 70+ combat and started recruiting in-game at the rune rocks.
In 2 month we had a 50+ memberlist, and would regularly pull 20+ to PK trips and 30+ to wars.
Today, no active main clan with a recruitment topic on RSC has a combat requirement of under 100+.
The majority of active RSC main clans are 115+ with a 120 average.
No surprise though - the clan world is as old as the game, and it's a complete decade since the golden era.
It's understandable that we're elitist as hell these days.
Here's the problem though: by the time a player gets to 100+ in osrs, they're already committed to something.
PvM, skilling, slayer, minigames, whatever - but they've no experience in clanning.
I was introduced to the clan world 10 years ago at level 71, when the average requirement was about 80+.
There were active PvP clans who went as low as 60+, and that's where we got all our new blood.
We groomed players fairly early in their RS careers, showing them that clanning was the most enjoyable pursuit in the game.
OSRS is still getting new blood, but we're getting only a fraction of it into traditional clanning because of this combat requirement elitism.
There are a few reasons why we don't just get up and start making 70+ clans again.
Firstly even though there are a lot of competent leaders still active, we're committed to our current clans.
I've been around mine for going on 7 years now, and I can't really see myself being comfortable anywhere else.
Secondly, the sheer effort starting a new clan requires.
Leading is not easy, nor is recruiting in-game/from scratch, or dealing with a bunch of 70+ who don't know what tanking is.
The rewards at this point are fairly meagre compared to how much effort we would need to put in.
Not to mention there are pretty much no clans out there like that already, so there's not much to go on activity-wise when it comes to events.
My ideas on how to counter this are pretty farfetched.
A global initiative to start a mass of clans all at once might get the ball rolling.
I think it's worth starting a discussion though - if combat requirement elitism is as severe an issue I think it is.
And furthermore, if the clan world attempted a fix and we succeeded, if it would have any significant impact.
