Running a Fed: Lesson 1- Should You Start Your Own Fed?

[Mongo the Destroyer]

Should You Start Your Own Fed?

So let’s not beat off any bushes here (that’s how the phrase goes, right?), most of us at some time or another have wanted to run our own fed. Maybe we have a passion for the freedom you think it gives, maybe you’re tired of rping but still want to be active in the fedding world, or maybe you hate getting screwed by other guys who can’t tell that you’re awesome and it’s time to show them.

Before you apply to open your own fed on the board (or make one off-board [but why would you do that? The survival rate outside is terrible off-board- and it’s hard enough to make it on-board]) you should consider if ownership is right for you. I have seen many owners and it’s pretty easy to tell who can and can’t make it. Oh and I also own the XHF Network and was the XHF’s owner when it was a fed.

Hello, I’m Mongo the Destroyer, and welcome to the soul-crushing/life affirming world of fed ownership!

Let’s take a look at who you are, and if that jives well with running your own place. Now can you not qualify in some areas and still run a successful efed? Sure. I see places that succeed with terrible owners all the time; I mean lots of people hate them or hate the fed and end up going into early “retirement” until we pull them back into it. But anyway from the owner’s standpoint he’s getting what he wants (even though he’s hurting the hobby as a whole). Anyway! Let’s take a look at the first question on our check list!

Are you doing this because you are unhappy with the results you’re getting as an rper at another fed?

Let’s get right into it and go for the jugular: A fed built on spite won’t work the way you want it to.

We lose in matches- a lot. It’s the nature of the beast. Since multiman matches even exist it’s more than likely your record will be a losing one. Or maybe the fed you’re in does something else wrong that makes you angry and you want to go start your own fed with hookers and blackjack. Good luck with that- but seriously, no stop- please stop because you’ll do damage. I’ll explain why with a case study.

Go look down in the XHF Archives here on the board and you’ll find a member of the beta Network that failed called XHF:VW- or as it was known for most of its run: Vortex Xtreme Wrestling (VXW). Now I’ll say straight up, the owner of VXW (Rob Arnold, he's still around) didn’t make it out of spite, he had noble reasons and him and I frequently discussed fed ownership while it was running alongside of the XHF.

His staff though? 100% spite. They had gotten fed up with the XHF and quit and latched onto VXW to be the new alternative that’d kill the XHF once and for all. Now, fair to them I was a very mediocre owner who’d sometimes be mentally checked out and leave everything up to my administrators. When they joined onto VXW as staff it was a big deal, these guys were great writers and had some really great ideas. And VXW was a rockin’ fed (seriously, go read the results).

But wait, why are there only three months worth of shows if this was a great fed? Because spite is only a good motivator in the short-term. As the VXW continued to do fine from an rping perspective, the staff one by one started ghosting their positions and leaving more and more work on the remaining staff (and non-spiteful owner). Either they lost their anger at me and the XHF (and came back) or just cracked under the amount of work that comes with running a fed- and since this wasn’t a labor of love on their part there wasn’t anything holding them to it. Eventually the only man left in their staff section was the owner- and it was too much for one man.

I cannot stress this enough: If you’re making a fed because something about a fed you’re in pissed you off- don’t open your own fed. Anything built on hate will only breed hate and that’s a problem since we want fedding to grow. You can have an amazing show and be really talented, but if you’re heart isn’t in the right place your fed never will be either.

No but seriously, are you doing this because of spite?

I’m not kidding, prospective owner. I could give you other examples but let’s just say it was lucky the XHF/XHF Network were there to bail out their members when the house of cards came crashing down.

Do you have something that everyone else lacks?

As Rat will tell you, I’m a visual guy (and I run a company where all I do is read, wild right?). I once saw a picture explaining the goal of a PHD education. Basically there’s this big circle of knowledge about a specific subject. Your goal when getting higher education isn’t just to learn all of that- that’s what college and your masters is for. As a doctorate student your goal is to push that circle out. So in that picture there was like this little pimple on the circle- that was new research the phd grad was adding. That should be you when it comes to efedding.

There’s tons of feds out there, and for you to start your own place is fine, but since you’re likely starting at zero you need something to set yourself apart from the pack. Otherwise why wouldn’t a prospective rper just go to a fed where they already have things running smoothly with the exact same setup?

As an example we’ll use the XHF proper. So the XHF was a pretty standard fed by early 2000’s standards. It was rp-based, misspelled extreme (uh, I mean CORRECTLY SPELLED XTREME), and ran a couple shows a week (oh how times have changed, lol). But there was one thing that set it apart from most normal feds of the day: the rp system was insane and chaotic. Most feds then (and even now) would pre-book you into matches and post up a card, then you’d rp around that card. The XHF didn’t do that. Instead, what we did was have a massive rp pit where every rp would go: match-specific, feud-forwarding, CD, screwing around, etc. In that section you’d make your challenges or set up your feuds. Then, based on initial rping we’d figure out the card a couple days before the show and post it up. So the rpers made our shows in terms of setting the card, the admins just figured out the match order, judged the winners, and wrote matches (with a lot of help from volunteers). It was very messy, but it was also very active. So an XHF member always had something to read because they’d never know if it would involve them. There were no deadlines so it wasn’t like “post my rps for the week and take off.” No, you needed to be there constantly. It was an addiction that worked really well for some people and for the people who didn’t like it? Well they could go to another fed- but the real competitors were at XHF and everyone knew it.

What can you offer that nobody else can? Is it a theme for the fed? Is it a special mechanic you think could change the whole system? If you’re fed doesn’t have something that stands out, then it’s likely not going to attract people away from more established companies. Imagine if you started a wrestling company with just a little bit of money and your goal was to be the next WWE. Do you think that John Cena is gonna drop his already lucrative career there to join your pithy little wannabe place? Of course not! You need to be able to entice him with something new and fresh!

How committed to this are you really?

This seems like a stupid question but you’d be surprised. If you think running a fed is either easier or maybe a little harder than being a roleplayer you are hilariously wrong! Hahahahahahahahahaa *cries to himself in a corner*

But really, the commitment a fed owner needs to have puts the fed above almost everything else in his life. At least from a recreational standpoint. If running your fed isn’t your #1 hobby or interest outside of work and family, then you probably shouldn’t open a fed. This commitment can takes many forms, and that’s why you need to be ultra committed. Some guys will open up shop and just wait and assume that if they build it, people will come. They won’t, dawg. Like one of the most frustrating things I see on the Network is a fed opens up and their target audience is current Network members. I mean, that’s fine, you should want to have guys here want to join your fed. But if you’re set up is purely meant to grab guys already here then you’re just stretching them thin.

So your first commitment should be the commitment to shilling. Oh boy you better love to shill. So for this section’s case study we’ll look at ICW- I won’t say the fed’s full name because it wasn’t a Network member and that’d be a little disrespectful. The owner of ICW was extremely committed to shilling. When he opened up ICW he went everywhere he could think of, and that included even youtube comment sections. This is a guy who ended up getting banned from places because he wanted people to join his fed. And it worked! He got some really cool guys from all across the fedding landscape- and some folks who didn’t even know fedding was a thing till he shilled his fed. I still want to know his secrets because I’m shameless but not skilled at advertising.

The ICW owner was also committed to quality. He had a great site, a clean board, and great shows with cool ideas going into them. Objectively speaking he was willing to do what he could to make things the best.

…Or so it seemed. You see, while his commitment to shilling and quality were never in question, his commitment to investing time into his fed was lacking. There’d be times during the rp window he’d not log in for days. It’d be like he abandoned his entire fed for a week or so and then show up and wonder why things weren’t very active. And he’d get angry at his members as though it were their fault. Like their job was to produce content for his site so that he could enjoy it when he felt like it.

….And his commitment wasn’t strong enough to put ICW into his top priorities. There’s a specific time the members will laugh with you about if you bring it up. So he had a system I don’t recommend for judging/writing (which I’ll probably talk about in a future article) that left him having to write matches pretty much either the day of or the day before the show- which is fine if you’re entirely committed to this process. Most of the XHF was written a day or two beforehand with at least 1-2 matches being written up quickly before the show. And it was fine for ICW….until hockey season. He was doing “live” results by that point, which meant he was literally writing the matches at showtime and posting them up one-by-one. And then hockey came on, so he watched that. Then it was bedtime, so he went to sleep- mid-show. And he didn’t tell anyone until like the next day. Meanwhile he had guys pressing the refresh button for hours after he’d wandered off. Don’t do that.

I don’t want to toot my own horn (well, I do, but I probably shouldn’t); but I make time for the XHF Network. That means that a lot of my time is spent holding some sort of office hours on the discord even while I’m doing other things. It’s almost always an open tab, along with the board- just in case. I try to be available any time I am online or on the computer. And I try to be on the computer a lot. It’s important because people need communication and if you show them that your fed is the most important hobby you have, guess what happens? It becomes important to them too. You as an owner set the pace, the mood, and the tone of everything. Are you willing to give the commitment that you want your members to have? If not, don’t waste people’s time.

Lastly you need to be committed for the long-haul; or be upfront about it right away. If you can only handle running a fed for a season it’s fine. CW does that and we’ve gotten used to it. But it’s something you need to consider. Can you stick it out and keep going? Swann started AXW and it was great but he realized eventually that he couldn’t keep that up and so he handed the reigns over to Bobby and Dylan and they did a great job owning it for years (until they closed it). You need to know how much you can handle and for how long. Nothing sucks more for a fedder to be in an active fed and the owner to one day come in and be like “Welp, this isn’t that fun anymore for me so we’re closing up.” If you think that might happen to you then you’re probably not cut out for running your own place- maybe being an admin might be a better fit. If you don’t think you can keep going when you get distracted by a passing butterfly, then don’t open a fed. It’s still fun for your members and quite frankly it’s bigger than just what you want you selfish prick. BUT, if you really wanna try something for a short period and you know you can’t do it long-term: just tell your members that when you open. If people know the ride is just for a short time then there’s no harm in it when you finish what you set out to do and close it down. Commitment is an important thing to consider, is what I’m saying.

Do you want respect/gratitude?

If so, gtfo now, lol. For real though, running a fed is a thankless job. Like as in, you won’t get thanked….almost ever. But do you know what you will get? Complaints. So many complaints. Sometimes, entire groups will form to ruin all that you made for them so that they could have fun. That’s what fed ownership is like. And then you get the divine privilege of booking those people fairly and welcoming them back when they ultimately come to their senses.

It’s just human nature. We’re far more likely to make our complaints known than to go out of our way to say “well that was really cool and I’m glad you’re doing this.” Just take a peek into any toxic fandom and you’ll understand that. Wrestling fans hate wrestling in most communities. Star Wars fans hate Star Wars. Godzilla fans hate Godzilla. It just happens and you get to be the one they direct their hate at when things don’t go their way. So instead of getting the thanks you probably earned you get to be cursed at, complained to, and have to put up with passive-aggressive promos and snipes from guys who think they can do a better job than you. That’s what running a fed is like.

And it can put a lot of strain on the administrators. You have to remember that your admins are doing as much work as you are (probably) but they also aren’t getting that figurehead level of respect. So as the owner if you can- get out in front of all that. Anyway you’re likely to soak up more accolades than you deserve so you should equally take a brunt of the punishments and figure out how to work things out with the members directly.

I’ve been talking with a former member real recently and she has been telling me about the owner of a place she’s rping at. That owner shuts down when things turn negative. The owner won’t respond to people for weeks if things aren’t going in the direction they want and there’s a concerted effort to force a separation of the owner’s level and the level of the members. That’s a huge mistake, yo. You’re not a god king- as the owner you’re just one of the guys but with a different role. Don’t ever think that just because you could ban somebody with a click of a mouse it makes you better than your members. Because they could always just leave and then you’d be all by yourself because you were a douchebag.

So yeah, if you’re expecting to be a revered king as owner- haha, don’t open a fed. Go play EWR or TEW and get it out of your system, lol. Here at the Network I get cursed at daily- it’s a running joke and since I’m chill about it folks are real nice to me. Surprise surprise, if you act cool to people it turns out they’re more likely to act cool to you. Be what you want your members to be. I try to be Optimus Prime- or maybe Optimus Primal from Beast Wars. Yes he was the leader, but he never really saw himself as more than another soldier who just had a slightly different role in the group. And even though he brought himself down from his pedestal, his troops pushed that pedestal higher (and we as children did too). That’s a real leader. But if you’re real sensitive to criticism then you probably shouldn’t open a fed.

Are you cool to do a lot of writing?

“Hey wait a second! You don’t write hardly any matches!” That’s true. I don’t, lol. But during the early takes of my ownership of the XHF I certainly did. I’d have to cover any matches that didn’t get written by show time. Then after writing those matches I’d have to edit and add commentary to the show.

In a later article I’ll talk about systems you can set up to decrease the amount of writing you’ll have to do (unless you’re really good at it). But from a new fed perspective: expect to do a lot of writing. You are basically creating the world your fedders will be inhabiting and that means that you should be doing a fair bit of the match writing and you are absolutely doing the show editing. Recently Scorps started cleaning up some old shows from the XHF and he noticed a distinct difference from when I stepped back because the commentary changed dramatically. And later we set up a system so that match writers were doing commentary themselves (something we still do) and that changes it more. But early on not only is it probably required that you’ll write almost everything- you really should too. People read shows, or at the very least their matches, carefully and what you write shows them what this fed is like. It seems really basic but it’s a very key way to help share your vision early on during the development phase.

I’ve run into prospective owners who see how the XHF and XHF Network have run and realize that I don’t really have any match-writing responsibilities. They take this to mean that if they’re tired of writing matches maybe they should stop being an admin or writer and switch to ownership. That is wrong, lol. Although it’s true I don’t take on matches except once in a blue moon it doesn’t mean I’m not prepared to do it if need be. The last two Night of Champions I started formatting the match in my head in case we couldn’t find a writer (thank goodness we did though, I’m a terrible match writer). And if match writing is a strength of yours then it’s good for you to keep doing it as an example for your staff (and there are some good owners on the Network who’ve done and do that). For me, I’m good at formatting shows- so when I can I do that. And understanding your strengths and weaknesses is a discussion for another day. But the point is to remember that when you’re first starting- expect to do a lot of work yourself (and not get thanked or appreciated for it, lol).

Conclusion

Should you start your own fed? Look, I’m not your mom, but it’s a lot of thankless work. If you think you can do it and make efedding a better place because of it- go for it. But from my experience, it takes a certain kind of person to both be an owner and really enjoy it- like to really get into it and be happy in that role in an active way. I love my role as an owner. There are other who maybe think ownership is for them but would probably flourish better as administrators. And still others are better off playing EWR/TEW and just keep rping. I’m not the one who makes that decision on who you are; but if you feel like being an owner is your calling then go for it. I’ll be writing more articles in the future to help you and guide you on your way!