Wormholes

Be unique enough that people want to join you. If you have to advertise your corporation, you're too boring.

All big corps start as small ones, but id disagree with the advertising thing i feel its absolutely important for corps to advertise themselves.

The reason you haven't found a solid answer is because there isn't one, you need to tailor how you recruit to the style you wish to play the game.

Recruit everyone > Create content for you recruits > Don't be afraid to give responsibility to driven people > Don't let the first 34 corp thefts get you down.

Have more fun in your corp then the spies have in their corps

Recruiting for me has always been about having a great core of guys and then build on that core. The reality with most corps in Eve (in my opinion) is if you're not growing, your dying. Eve is a game that has a constant turn over of players due to natural attrition (and seasons) and you need to be dedicated enough to bring in a few fresh players every month to keep a good activity & player base.

I disagree with Angsty in regards to advertising/promoting your group. (which isn't surprising) It's essential to promote your corp and advertise it. However it does not necessarily have to be via recruitment chat spamming only. It can be in a multitude of chat channels, getting awesome kills/participating in great fights/BRs, forum threads on Eve O, Reddit, Youtube vids ect.

On the spai thing. Reality is you will get them and you need to be comfortable with that. What you need to do is limit the damage they can do by restricting access via POS/Hangar allocations and being on top of your role/title management. Also make your corp enjoyable and you never know, the guys who joined your corp with ill intentions may actually come to like you.

Wish you all the best in your future project, WH space needs more people and content creators in it.

Sith

I am finding it hard to sell the lowsec + wormhole life to people right now. This is, I surmise, due to the fact that this forum exists.

People want to get in w-space for a few reasons, and actually PVPing is honestly far down the list for 99% of wormhole recruits you will ever find.

ISK is a prime reason for quite a few people. You have to outline how your corp will make its members rich. This is easily achieved by being connected to C4 or C5 space, or for the lazy and scurred, C2 with O477 is how you roll. Seriously, I've seen people make 40M an hour in C3's and wet their spacepanties.

PVP...sorry "PVP" is a reason for a lot of people. People PVP, this is true, but the majority of people like to "PVP", an activity which occurs solely with 4 Guardians in fleet. To get the 4 Guardians in fleet, you need numbers so that the truly terrible PVPers can "PVP" with the knowledge that if they ever get primaried, they've got 4 Guardians to save their bacon. Seriously, this is the rule and not the exception.

Other people seem to join WH corps to get involved in "gudfites" and join "elite" PVP corps. These generally revolve around "well, i'm flying a T3 cruiser, ergo I must be elite" and "250 guys wasted a whole weekend sieging the balls out of some dudes who selfdestructed everything and i was one of them. Bam! Bumpersticker!"

then you have BU and Lazerhawks who it is said, fairly or not, just logon trap cap quads in C5's and collect multi-multi-multi-billion ISK killmails by dogpiling 10 nags onto a carebear and alts. It looks good on the killboard, it certainly takes a hell of a lot of effort (which I admire from afar, seriously guys, nerdspergers syndrome much?) but it's not exactly a business model you can copy easily with fresh blood in a fressh corp.

I've encountered a lot of the people enamoured with these types of wormhole gameplay. There's nothing wrong with it, mind. I just can't offer it to them, so they go elsewhere based on perceptions they get from reading the forums with starry eyes about how zomgausum WH PVP is vs dullsec or brosec PVP.

The reality, in my overblown self-important opinion, is that you can try all sorts of shennanigans and gimmicks to attract people to your corp to play the game the way you play it - and maybe you can teach them a thing or two - but you can't lead a horse to water and you can't make people's reality meet their perceptions.

So make your corp meet their perceptions as much as you can, and then try to hold on to the people who don't sound like cats molesting each other in a Mississippi bog on comms.

I'd say it's not much different than recruiting to any corp other than a noob friendly HS corp. If your corp has clear goals you can set requirements for recruits (e.g. must have scanning V, can fly T3, whatever). Then after that, you go out and advertise and talk to people.

Someone earlier said very clearly, to make it fun. The biggest obstacle you'll have in recruiting for a w-space corp is getting newer players over the "fear of the unknown" that w-space provides.

People think w-space is very dangerous (and we're all guilty of pushing that idea) but in reality, it's pretty easy to adjust to and you need to provide recruits with that understanding. Give them a reason to be in your corp, and they will join. Don't promise them anything, other than fun.

You're open to corp theft, but it happens everywhere. Be thorough in your background checks, and don't give new players access to corp hangars where anything valuable is. Set up an SMA for new players and that's all they have access to, which will limit it.

Sith is right, advertising and actively recruiting is a must. Don't pay any attention to Angsty Boy.

W-space is all about organization and planning if you want to grow your corp. Plan ahead and have a roadmap of what you are looking to do and be. This will help develop your identity as a group and foster a culture conducive to reaching that goal.

Familiarize yourself with good SOP for w-space life and the tools/corp interface. When looking to recruit, get to know them a little. Do they seem like a good fit? Is there a time zone difference? W-space corps are a lot like sitcoms. You have a core group of highly active players in most corps who function to drive things and supporting characters who still advance the plot but aren't always around.

Try to keep a good ratio of the two, take the time to get your new recruits settled and part of the corp so they can grow into part of the core. Don't be worried if they don't work out. Same token don't be afraid to pass up on a recruit if they don't seem like they would fit. IMHO its far more important to have a stable/drama free group who can count on each other then just numbers.

EVE is a fun game when played with people who have similar interests. A lot of us here in w-space are around to have drama free fun exploding spaceships with good friends. Interestingly enough people who tend to like non-serious business of the exploding spaceship variety make pretty good friends.

Just confirming that I'm still monitoring this thread. So far I've gotten quite a bit of really solid advice and I really appreciate it from all of you. The only question I still have is do you guys exclusively use the in game advertisement function or do you post on the forums/reddit and stuff too? I think I know what message I need to be sending, I'm just not sure where. Sorry if this comes across as nooby but this has been a chronic problem for me since I started playing and I'm looking for a comprehensive solution.

We use an in game ad as well as a forum ad, but what really works best is just talking to people in game. Sith is a pro at being involved everywhere, but for a reason. He doesn't just sit in some other groups' pub channel just to recruit. He talks to people, gets to know them, and in turn they usually hit it off. Most of WH space, hell most of EVE, are retreads. People like to play with people they like. Go make friends and the recruitment will take care of itself.

I am not a reqrutier (the horror) but I have been around a bit. It is good to put your name out there on the forums here and elsewhere as long as you are not spammy about it. The best way has already been maentiond and that is to get out there and be active in the community. Join some Pub channels, join some WH channels, Join ALL THE THINGS.

I amnot pushy about it but whenever WH's come up in any way even in none WH channels I normally make a comment .. and that often leads into a "I allways wondered about" type of conversation. I hope I have scared off less people then I have attracted to WH space.

When I shoot a puppy 7 days old that wanders in to a WH doing his exploration tutorial I will send him 50 mill and convo him and try to explane WH space and what to expect in hopes of them comeing back some day. (I do still kill him first ... I mean its WH space).

SO to be less rambely get your name out there in out of game media and be active in the "community" and people will at least give you a look. Worry about the SPIs do your do diligence but be more concerned about getting people that will fit into what you are trying to build and be happy.