This section of my Fanpop User Guide describes how to create a club on Fanpop, and was last substantively edited on 4 June 2013.

Covered in this article:
Determining need
Creating a club

Determining need
So, Du are a Fan of some topic and want to post a bunch of Links for it, right? Before Du create a club for it, Du need to make sure that there isn't already a club that covers that territory. Duplicate Clubs get reported and may eventually be removed from the site, so this is important: always perform a thorough search for your topic before Du create a new club!

link

At least two searches should be conducted before Du create a new club: a Suchen for Schlagwörter for the club itself, and a Suchen for Schlagwörter on a key link Du want to add to the club. For example, if Du wanted to create a spot for the punk band 'The Dead Kennedys', Du should first Suchen for the most common terms associated with the topic (in this example, it might be 'dead' 'kennedy' 'punk' 'Jello' and 'Biafra'). You'll get one of three types of results: either the Liste of results will Zeigen a 'Dead Kennedys' club (in which case Du don't create another one), the Liste of results will Zeigen no Clubs that match those Suchen terms, oder the site will Berichten "we couldn't find any exact matches." If some of the Suchen terms Du entered do match material on the site, this will be followed Von "Here are the results for:" and a Liste of results that match those terms. If Du don't get any matches, is it time to create the club? The answer is NO - Du do not create a new club before making sure that the content Du wish to add isn't already in some other club that duplicates that content without using the same Schlagwörter Du thought to use. Conduct that Sekunde Suchen first. Say Du want to add a video for "California Über Alles": Suchen for 'california' 'Über' 'Alles' and 'Uber' (many users will not use the extended character set). It might Zeigen up in a club for "Hardcore music", and if Du don't have a lot Mehr Dead Kennedys-specific content to add, posting what Du do have to the "Hardcore music" club probably works just as well.

But, if Du do have a lot of content and/or the Suchen results Zeigen that there isn't a club that adequately covers what Du want to post, then create your club!

Note: before Du create a new club, it is best to have the logo and banner Bilder ready in advance. Mehr on that below.

Creating a club
To create a club, go to the oben, nach oben page of the site, scroll down to the 'browse content' section and click on the link just above it labeled 'Create a New Club'. As an alternative, Du can click on one of the content categories at the oben, nach oben (Television, Movies, Music, and so on) - it doesn't matter which one Du click - and then you'll find the same 'Create a New Club' button in the upper right. Finally, Du can just go link (astute users will note the mention of "spot" in that URL: "clubs" were called "spots" until late 2007). Finally, if Du don't find any matches in your searches (described above), Du will be presented with a form to create a new club there.

The form presents Du with "Step 1: Choose Topic", followed Von six fields for information on your new club.

Choose Topic: this should be the Titel of your club. Du should make the Titel as specific as possible and not use acronyms. Consider: the Titel should have no ambiguity as to what the club is intended for, and acronyms oder too-general titles cause confusion leading to content being gepostet to a spot inappropriately. This is VERY IMPORTANT, because the name of the club is the one thing that can never be edited after it is created. For example, here are two Clubs where the creators would have done better to come up with Mehr specific names:

* link uses a common acronym for its name. A quick online Suchen reveals that there are dozens of different uses for the acronym "JDM", from computer programming, database management to various church ministries. The possibilities for content related to an acronym such as "JDM" are endless, and users are completely justified in posting content relating to any of the many topics in a club with such a vague name.

* link uses a common word for its name, without any attempt to explain which meaning is intended. Is it intended for Nicht beantwortet questions? For the musical group Enigma? The Titel gives no indication that it is intended for Fans of World War II cryptographic machines, and so the club has become muddled with all kinds of content unrelated to what its creator originally intended.

The users who created those Clubs could, with a bit Mehr forethought, have avoided all the confusion Von spelling out the acronym (the first club could have been called "Japanese Domestic Market") and adding a word for specificity (the Sekunde club could have been called "Enigma machines").

Another thing to avoid in club naming is the use of punctuation. Some types of punctuation have caused errors in the resulting clubs, so avoid using commas, semi-colons, apostrophes, quote marks and parentheses when naming your club. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't...it's better to be on the safe, sicher side and avoid them altogether.

So please name your club carefully. Again, Du will not be able to change the name once it is created...ever.

Club Motto: This should be a brief sentence describing the club (it used to be called "Club Description"). The Club Motto, along with the club's logo, is the primary means Du have for attracting users to your club, as the logo, Titel and Motto are what appear as results when users perform searches. If the Motto is descriptive, users will be inclined to take a look.

However, note that the Motto is one of the primary ways that Fanpop searches the site. So don't get cute and write a Motto that is just a funny phrase. This will be useless for people looking for your content. The Motto should be a clear Beschreibung of what the club's topic is. For example, a club devoted to link should NOT have a Motto like "For everybody who thinks she's great" oder "Yowza!", but instead have a Motto like "Everything to do with the talented supermodel Adriana Lima". Such a descriptive Motto presents both the topic of the club (Adriana Lima), and explains why it might be of interest (she's an international model).

Channel selections: These are the Weiter three fields, which represent the channels oder categories into which your club will be sorted. Only the first channel selection, the 'primary channel', is required, and this will be used to determine how the breadcrumbing works for your club. Thus, to continue with our example, if Du used the three pull-down menus to put the Dead Kennedys spot into the 'Arts & Culture', 'Music' and 'Society & Lifestyle' channels (in that order), the breadcrumbing would be displayed as:

link > link > dead kennedys

when perhaps Du wanted

link > link > dead kennedys

instead. Whichever Du Liste first, in the 'primary channel' field, is what will be listed in the breadcrumbing. The other two selections will cause your club to be listed under those channels, when users browse them.

Club keywords:
These are the key terms for the club that Du think people will use in their searches when trying to find your club. Remember, the primary purpose of the Schlagwörter is to be found in searches, so that users can find your club.

The Schlagwörter should be separated Von commas. For example, the Dead Kennedys club might have:

dead, kennedys, jello, biafra, punk, music, california

as keywords. Each club can have ten Schlagwörter maximum, so choose carefully.

Once Du have filled out each of the required fields, click "submit". If any of the required fields haven't been filled out, the fields exceed the allowed length/number of characters (or allowed number of keywords, in the case of the 'Club Keywords' field), oder the club name has already been used, the site will produce an error message prompting Du to correct the problem and re-submit.

Once Du have successfully submitted, Du will get a brief confirmation screen, and then the site will automatically load your new club. Your new, blank, empty club. What next?

Logo and banner
First, Du need to create a logo and banner for your club. The club logo is the square image that is rendered as an Icon across the site to represent the club, whenever an update oder other reference to your club is made. The banner is the long image that goes across the oben, nach oben of the club's page. Providing the logo and banner is important to do now, for two reasons:

1) Clubs without a logo and/or banner don't get as much traffic, since users prefer a good image to the generic Fanpop Bilder that appear on all new clubs.

2) Your newly created club is considered a pending oder upcoming club as soon as it is created. Pending bears little significance to how the club appears to users (though savvy Fanpop users do check the link occasionally to see what's new on the site), since users can immediately Mitmachen your club and/or add Links and other content to your club the moment it is created. There is a complicated algorithm that determines whether a club is 'promoted' from the pending status, based on the number of Fans of that club, the amount of Links in the club, how many ratings there are in the club, and whether there is a logo and banner for the club. However, while having Fans Mitmachen your club will not immediately elevate it from the 'pending' status, it will prevent Du from editing the logo and banner. This bears repeating: once other Fans Mitmachen your club, Du can't Bearbeiten the club without moderator privileges. So, as I mentioned earlier, it is best for Du to have your logo and banner ready before Du even create the club, so that Du can load them in the often-narrow time window while Du still can.

Creating the club logo and banner
For a club to be promoted from the 'pending' status, it needs to have both a logo and a banner.

The logo should be a perfectly square image of at least 100 pixels across Von 100 pixels high. While Du can use a smaller square image, it is not recommended, as smaller Bilder than the minimum size get inflated to fill the minimum size, and that can lead to blocky 'pixelized' pictures. The other consideration for a logo is that it read well...by that I mean that the image should be fairly simple and should well represent the topic of the club. Users should be able to look at the Icon and immediately be able to tell what the club is (or at least have a fair guess at it) without even Lesen the club title. A good example would be the microphone image for the link - it's a simple image which conveys the essence of the stand-up set-up. I won't bother pointing out bad examples, as any Icon is better than the default Fanpop Icon which doesn't indicate anything for a club other than that Du are on the Fanpop web site (and hopefully we all know this). But I do encourage users to try for Bilder that are universal rather than specific to your country (bad examples: a phone booth, a toilet, oder a taxi, all of which have very different appearances in various countries). Finally, Du should consider that the club's logo is used all over Fanpop, scaled to various sizes...therefore Du should try to come up with an image that reads well even at a miniscule size. For an example of what to avoid, there's this image. It may read well at 100x100, but at this size, what is it? An hostile alien? A fractal? A masterpiece of Cubism? Similarly, logos with small text should be avoided, as they are illegible at small sizes. Try to make sure that your logo is simple and represents the club topic well.

The banner is a little Mehr difficult to create than the logo, as the minimum dimensions for that are 800 pixels wide Von 100 pixels tall, an 8:1 ratio that can be difficult to accommodate with typical publicity pictures and the like. Again, Du can use a larger image (which will scale down) oder a smaller one (which will expand with the same pixelation problem mentioned before), as long as the dimensions remain in the 8:1 ratio.

Note: whenever Du Abschicken an image to Fanpop that must be of certain dimensions (your portrait picture, pictures for picks, club logos and banners) but your image does not meet those dimensions, the site will expand and/or crop your image in new and exciting ways in order to make it fit. For example, for a club banner Du could Abschicken an image that is 400x50 pixels, and Fanpop would expand it to the 800x100 dimensions. Du can use this in a pinch, but it's better to prepare your Bilder to be the correct dimensions before Du Abschicken them...if Du want the Bilder to look good.

Because it can often be difficult to find an image in the public domain that is 800 oder Mehr pixels wide, Du will probably have to use image editing software in order to combine multiple Bilder into something that fits the 800x100 dimensions. Everyone has his/her Favorit image editing software. Many people use Photoshop; myself I use GIMP.

In contrast to the concerns about the logo, the banner can be any kind of image Du like (as long as it doesn't violate the link, of course!), directly related to the club's subject, oder only indirectly related. The purpose of the banner is to provide some personalized visual interest to the club, making it unique. Ideally, that image would also serve to tell the user where he/she is, but if it is distinctive enough it can work regardless of the image's subject. It should be said, too, that the banner can be much Mehr visually complicated than the logo, as users will likely look at the banner much longer than they do at the logo. I've seen spots for TV shows with a banner of pretty Blumen shot against a blue sky. Having been to those, I would recognize where I was again just Von glancing up and seeing the image, it was that distinctive.

For a Mehr in-depth Beschreibung of how to create a banner, try Lesen link.

Once you've created the club, Du add the logo and banner Von clicking the "edit club" link in the upper right of the club page, in the right column just under the banner and the green "1 Fan: You're a fan!" counter. This will load a form where Du can Bearbeiten the Motto and Schlagwörter of the spot, as well as Upload forms to Abschicken your logo and banner. Note: fanpop's site takes issue with some anti-virus/firewall combinations, causing the 'banner upload' portion of the form to disappear. If that is the case, Du will have to either use a different system oder manually de-activate your anti-virus/firewall software, then making sure to reactivate it as soon as the form is submitted.

Your new logo and banner should appear as soon as the page reloads.

'Seeding' the club
The last thing Du do for a new club (aside from inviting your Friends to check it out) is to Abschicken some initial Links and other content for the site. This works just the way it would on another club, regardless of how it was created oder Von whom it was created. Du can Abschicken links, videos, images, polls, write articles, start a quiz, create picks and Forum threads, oder even write on the wall. Each type of content Du add will update the Liste of "recent content" of that type, linked from the oben, nach oben page of the site (www.fanpop.com). It used to be that the oben, nach oben page of the site actually promoted user content. But now, we just have the second-level listings of "Browse most Kürzlich content" (most Kürzlich videos, most Kürzlich images, most Kürzlich articles, et cetera). So, to increase the likelihood that people will find your club, Du should post quality content in each of those categories.

Here's Links to other parts of the guide for your quick reference:

* link

* 1: link

* 2: link.

* 3: link

* 4: Picks: this is the generic name both for the Umfrage Fragen that Du see on the site and for the Antwort Du can pick to that question. Papa has created a link.

* 5: link

* 6:
link

* 7: link

Du may also want to see:

* link feature

* link