Proper etiquette for over-inviting

This may very well be a tl/dr situation, but here goes:



For SOME reason, I do this every couple of months or so...

I will send out broadcasts and channel chat for a certain Task Force (in this instance, it was Citadel around 8 a.m. Pacific today [Thursday]).

At first, there is little interest. Then a trickle, then a surge of interested folks.

Generally, people will alt and send me tells to 'save a spot for XYZ' or something.

I get everything started and get all folks where they need to be...

And I invited 8 people. Or, including me, 9...

So, what I ALWAYS do, is pass the star, tell the person who is now the leader the name of the person to invite upon my exit, and I quit the team.

I think this is the way to do it, whether I am a villain OR a hero.

What do you do, or what should be done, or what is the standard protocol for just such a situation?

Thanks.

As a side note, very rarely are folks pissed about the person who calls for the TF to leave as long as someone else takes their place. And the person I leave for always seems quite pleased.

I know your pain...

I do the same, I pass the star to the next most experienced person and ask them to invite the 9th person and leave the group.

I find it hard when folks in global tell me they are coming, and then folks show up telling me "ready for invite" at my zone; leaving a chance that the global tell and the local tell are actually not the same persons.

Something that would assist me greatly, but I know the community would just give reasons not to do it as a matter of standard, is for local tells to have the global name included in parenthesis such as: "Ironmike (@MrGorgeous): ready for invite."

The above would do much for succint communications and greatly reduce uncertainty of invites.

Hugs

Sue

When filling a team I always say slots are available for the first 7 people ready to be invited, and as I fill up the slots I announce how many slots are left, closing with an "All slots filled, no more room."

i do it on occasion, but i would never leave the team if i over-invite. i try very hard to not over-invite, by sending personal messages to those who have responded and keep a running post on the global TF/SF channel (Triumph Watch 2.0 for me) of how many more spots are open to try to keep extra tells down.

i also tell the first extra tell that the team is apparently full, but they'll get the spot if anyone doesn't show or leaves before we start. in the case when i do over-invite, its a first-come, first-serve decision, and i apologize to whoever got the shaft.

i figure, it happens, but no need to beat yourself over it. just apologize and be considerate. maybe you're not selfish about spending all that time forming a team, but i don't see anything wrong with turning that last person away, especially if you warn them before hand.

(if they just switch after a tell saying 'i'm switching now' without any response, well, its their fault for being hastey).

My 2 cents. You are the one doing everyone a favor by organizing the team so to drop yourself, while very noble, is probably not necessary. Over inviting happens especially in the global channels, try your best to do first come first serve. You can ask those on team if they are willing to drop (some are just looking for something to do and may be willing to drop off an over invited team). In the end I say just explain to the others you over invited, apologize and enjoy your team.

Having run 100's of ITF's I feel your pain, what I do as the tells come flooding In is tell the person as im replying..."ok you are slot 5" "you got slot 6" "you got last slot" that why im sure I get the right number, any questions arrive I ask them what slot they had. If I over book, I just tell the truth with a "Im sorry"
Oh, also. I almost never assign slots off the global chat unless I know that person VERY well, no /tell no spot.

These are some great responses! I reckon I will try for that Citadel again later today... for me and 7 folks that is...

I think that is very cool and very nice to leave the team, due to over-invites, but I don't think it is necessary (but hey, nothing wrong with it!).
So long as you respond to the 9th member and apologize and wish them well, all is A-Okay, in my book.

Any time I've been the 9th member in such a case (hey, it happens), so long as they let me know, I tell them no worries and wish them well/fun.
And when I'm the one who over-invited, I communicate to the 9th member as apologetically and kindly as I can... and I usually get back the same sort of response.

It can be annoying when you have a back and forth with the inviting player, switch and/or get to the zone and they're full and don't bother to say anything (maybe a bit annoying -depending on how popular the TF/event is- even if they do respond afterward, but, hey, it's just a game and mistakes happen).

A bit of friendly understanding on both sides goes a long way.
Still... cheers to you for being honorable and putting others' fun ahead of your own.

Just my personal opinions and all, for whatever they're worth, hehe.

I promise nothing and do the invites one by one, stating the number of slots left to fill. By the time I see the little seven next to the second to last person's name, I put out the last call.

I might, at times, grab 4 or 5 right off the bat and then call out again. I've never run into an over invite, but I have run into a 'wrong dude' invite, a 'wrong level' invite, a 'don't have the arc or acess' invite, the 'oh, that's redside?" attempted invite and the occasional request to boot someone to make room for one player's third account...

I suppose if I did over invite, I'd tell the group, ask if anyone minds dropping. There's usually someone on the fence every time anyways...

I'm with most others in here. If I ever over-invite (think I may have done that a couple of times), I very nicely tell them that it filled. What I always do is go off of tells....if someone says in the global that they're interested, I send them a tell, asking for them to send me one when they're ready for invite. That way, I go off of however many are currently on the team, then scan my chat log for the yellow writing, counting anyone that hasn't yet joined. And the click>global name or click>server name comes in very handy.

On the other side of things, it really irks me when someone does this. I'm likely to join a task force because of the person who's getting it together. When that person does something like this, I've ended up running with someone I don't like in the lead position or even worse (for me ) have the star thrust upon myself.

The one time I organized a pug ITF I was flooded with tells and stuff and was totally unable to keep everyone straight... the main problem with that one is being unable to invite people as they send tells but really, I was just totally disorganized and was unprepared for the response. I had to apologize to multiple folks that day while I was banging my head against the wall for my supidity and noobness... but I didn't quit the team.

Mainly because I've been that extra invite quite a few times. IT IS NOT A BIG DEAL (at least to me). Stuff happens. I move on. Another TF will form soon. I would be mortified to think the original organizer - the guy who did all the work to form the team - stepped out because of me. I'd also hate it if I did get on a TF only to find out the original organizer was bailing on us because of something like this.

Make the apology, try to keep it from happening again (it will anyway) and move on. I'm sure the over-invited player will forget about it faster than you will.

That happens all the time in regular missions and stuff crayhal, but for a TF where there is no reshuffling team members, it is a different matter. Still, I do that too!

My approach to recruiting a TF is as follows.

First, I look to my regular buddies/global friends and find out how many free slots I have. Then, after that I go to the global channels to fill them... something like "ITF forming, room for 3" and I keep a pen & paper list of people who respond. I always go "first come, first served" when filling out the team and if I get several asking for that last slot I go with the first person to ask, or on rare occasions when 2 or more respond at once in the globals I go with the first tell.

I try really hard to avoid overbooking; on the rare occasions where I do (twice in the last 6 months ) I apologize to the last person and try to ask them first the next time. Last night I was forming up an ITF and I had someone ask for a slot and then DC; I held the slot open for 5 minutes and then went ahead and filled it. Naturally they got back immediately after I filled that 8th slot (Sorry Casa, we'll try again next time).

Before I start looking for players I write down the total slots, like this:
Confirmed global friends - 4 slots (including myself)
Slot 5__________
Slot 6__________
Slot 7__________
Slot 8__________

As people respond I write their global down as filling that slot. Sometimes it gets tough; last month I sent out a call for 4 slots on Kahn and literally had 7 responses within 20 seconds. It happens sometimes but I've always had a rule of the first to respond gets the slot. On occasion I've even had a SG mate or global friend log in and ask while I'm forming... if I've already promised the slots then that's it; I don't think it's fair to kick or refuse someone I've promised a spot for someone else.

When my tab of /tells, team chat, and broadcast was scrolling so fast that it was difficult to keep track of the /tells, I created a separate tab just for the /tells. This way I could keep track of the order the /tells came in.

I frequently run into the same situation. I often form PuGs by sending tells to people to ask if they would like to join whatever team I'm running. Since I generally only get about 1/5 people actually want to join, I usually send out a few tells at a time, even if there is only 1 spot left on the team. On a fairly regular basis I get more than one person saying they'd like to join. I usually just invite whoever responded first, and explain what happened to the other person and apologize. Most people don't get upset or anything.

Yeah, I end up doing this every once in a while, generally because I end up miscounting currently available room on the team and reserved spots {from "switching, save me a spot", "omw blueside" or "let me finish this mission"}. The standard procedure with those kinds of errors is to apologize and let them know they'll be my first choice as soon as anyone drops {which, CoH being what it is, is usually soon}. Once a spot opens, send another tell asking if they're still interested, and invite if they are.

An open letter to NCsoft

I leave the team if I promised some spots and can't deliver, but if I'm just sending tells and people reply after the team is filled, I apologize and turn them down saying it's full.

I've never had anyone express annoyance over being turned down because of a full team ; however, friends occasionally get irked at me leaving my spot to a stranger.

Generally I will drop for whomever unless it's going to be a huge issue for the team (EG I'm the only tank on a Mo run).

Did lead to one situation where I'd invited 9, dropped (most of the other 8 were regular team mates) and went to do an ITF. Joined ITF and one of my TF DC'd so they were down to 7 needing 8 to start. Luckily the ITF hadn't started so went back to the LG and we did get the Mo badge. They all must have thought I was insane.