yes thats exactly what I mean Eriisa...I use GT as an example because it is the only other site I have experienced with anything like fellowships, the best way to have a better site is to improve on what other people are doing, which is exactly what Fencer has doing in some areas so far.

I was wondering when you would speak Ellie :-)
I think it is unecessary to limit the amount of fellowships a player can join, or how many members a fellowship can have. Players ulimately will only play in as many fellowships/ teams/tournaments/games as they have time for.
There are loads of clubs at goldtoken, but I believe when the clubs first started there was only a few big ones, which divided into more smaller ones, and so on. Ellie can fill us in on the details as she has been involved there from the early days.
At present the big fellowships have pretty much invited all the members here, and a lot of people have joined 3 or 4 fellowships, without knowing quite what to expect. If this continues then of course you are going to get confusion, and people won't know where their loyalties should lie. Arguments could quite easily arise out of all this. I know at goldtoken, to join most of the clubs you actually have to ask the president, invites aren't automatically sent out, thus you have players who do a bit of research for who they wish to play for, they might choose a club because they have friends there, because they play lots of challenges, they have good players, lots of reasons, but usually the choice is left up to them.
I put it this way, if and when Fencer decides to implement inter fellowship tournaments it will be much more fun for us all if there are more than 4 or 5 fellowships, more fellowships with smaller teams, will give us much better competition in the long run, and as more players join and select their fellowships then more friendships will be formed, players will also move around a bit, and fellowships will grow, players will leave and start their own, and so on.
Also as we have seen at Goldtoken there are clubs which have been formed for the purpose of tournaments only within that club, members can belong to any other club they like, I am co-prez of one there with 150 members which I formed to only play backgammon tournaments. There are also clubs formed for the purpose of sharing hobbies and the like, these clubs do not compete in outside tournaments either, so any member can join and not affect their team standing with their main club. There are lots of possibilites

The way we deal with which players actually play in inter club challenges there, is this:
A club may post for a challenge, or contact the president (big boss) directly. The will specify how many players they have, and the challenge details, ie. 3 day games, 2 rounds, (depends on the formats we get here)
Then the president will post on the club board and describes the challenge, how many players are required, and asks who wishes to play. If there are far more who wish to play than there are spots for, then we go find another challenge for them, another reason why the more fellowships which develop here the better.
Hope this helps :-)

Yes Harley it would be easier to have a seperate fellowship for each game, this is how most clubs seem to set up at goldtoken.
Lovelysharon, it is going to be up to each individual big boss how they set up their fellowships, and completely up to their members whether they wish to stay and play with their fellowship, I would like to stress that I dont think playing in teams should be serious lets beat up the opponents type competition, (well most teams I am sure won't be like that) there is lots of friendship and fun to be had playing for a team...ALSO...if you are signed to a team for a particular fellowship and choose to only play in the very occasional tournament then that should be ok too...I would never insist players "play" when they may not want to. I guess this decision will again be up to individual big bosses.
I am sure it will all sort itself out over time, there will end up being tons of fellowships to choose from, some for team comp, others just for fun, and the members will be able to join exactly what they want.

The reason I mentioned having more than one discussion board on a fellowship is simple. If a player signs to 5 separate games at 5 separate fellowships then reading all of those general messages will be daunting, however if there is a game specific board that they can subscribe to at each fellowship it will make life much easier for them, and also perhaps encourage them to read the boards. If I sit down and see 50 new messages on a board and have limited time I tend to ignore the board all together and I am sure there are many other time limited players at this site.
At Goldtoken I am president or co- prez of 6 clubs now, 5 of those clubs play under the one club name but are separated into separate game types, with their own club page, and boards, this again makes it easier for players who wish to play one game for one club and another for a different club. I think one reader saw this as segregation which it most certainly isn't, it just makes it easier for team members to share their loyalties around.
I keep using Goldtoken as a guideline as it is the only site I have seen with this kind of team/club/fellowship thing before, but also I feel it is one of the strongest attractions that site has, and many of the good points would be well implemented here.
As to Harleys suggestion of big bosses getting tougher and insisting players join teams or leave, I am in agreement in this sense, I would personally prefer players ONLY joined my fellowship because they wish to play for one of our teams not because I have sent a player I dont know a random invite. I guess its up to Big Bosses to be responsible here. I would not like to see players getting random invites to join all the big fellowships as soon as they become members, then being thrown out because they haven't signed to play for a team.
Also I must mention at GT there are many clubs which are open to all members, for other reasons than to play for a team, in fact these clubs do not officially play any games, they exist for social and fun reasons. This will be an option open to people setting up fellowships, but they should make their intentions very clear so people do not join what they think is a fun club, and then get pressured into joining a team

thats a pretty tough comment lovelysharon, especially after rereading my comment.
I really don't see how playing for a team can be considered separatism and segregation. If players want to join fellowships just for chat or fun games without the competition then I am sure there will be fellowships just for that!

I actually expected the fellowships to work like the clubs at Goldtoken do.
I think it is up to each individual fellowship big boss to explain to players when they invite them to join, what the fellowship is about. So far lots of players just receive an invite to several fellowships upon becoming a paid member, and really dont understand what its about. As Harley mentioned, a lot don't even read the fellowship discussion boards.
I personally dont see the point in joining a fellowship unless its to join a team, unless its just a social fellowship, which plays no official tournaments. I guess thats because I am used to the system there where inter club competition is in place.
When inter fellowship tournaments are in place I am sure players will move around a bit until they find a team they are happiest in. I guess quite a few members here have never played this type of set up before so are not quite sure what a fellowship is meant to be.
I dont see the point in limiting the amount of fellowships a player can join, as they can only join 1 team for each game type, its up to them to choose who to play for. I will probably limit membership to my fellowship to players who have signed for teams once inter fellowship tournaments have started.
I would like to see some additional features added to the fellowships, the ability to split off the game types into separate fellowships, or at least to be able to have separate discussion boards at the main fellowship, so if a player was a member of the backgammon team, and no other games, they can just go read what is applicable to them. Also the ability to have more than 1 big boss, and to be able to customise what a manager can do, also to be able to make someone a team captain without making them a manager.
I know a lot of players who would not even play at goldtoken unless the clubs were in place, hopefully the fellowships will create that kind of loyalty at this site, so far it has the potential we just need some refinement of its features.

Come join a happening fellowship..Lots of fun...great members and fellowship tournaments always happening, new games added by demand! Check us out "The Dream Team"

Is that competition I see??? LOL.

The Dream Team has most games ...we are most active in the gammon variants, but our members play lots of others too.
We have fellowship tournaments happening all the time, check us out! All Welcome!

Come along and have some fun with the Dream Team. Games so far are back, nack and race! All welcome