For those that do not know me, please allow me to introduce myself; I am MetalTomato of IR-4. I have been with the clan now for a few months, and although I am as those of you who know me can attest, loathe to post up on forums or get involved in clan politics, I feel that there is a situation, (in addition to the many other situations that are currently cascading down upon us), that needs to be addressed with alacrity and wit; Winning the Propaganda War.

I have not spent a tremendous amount of time reading the WoT forums, and I do not really enjoy clan politics. That being said, I have recently noticed that in the WoT "Clan Diplomacy" section, there seems to be a noticeable lack of a clear and coherent IRON RAIDERS "Party Line" being expressed by a single and distinct voice. I notice also that on the first page of the "Clan Diplomacy" section, most of our rivals have a consulate or embassy, ostensibly to conduct the business of diplomacy on the forums, or, at the very least, to maintain a clear presence; Please forgive me if I am a nub and do not know differently, but to these eyes, our enemies have a voice and a presence in the WoT and IRON RAIDERS does not.

If this perception is close to the truth, it troubles me that we have not made the choice to fight our enemies with all of the tools at our disposal in this GAME. As any willy old vet of multiplayer strategy games knows, the game's forum and the subsequent back and forth on it are simply ONE of the ways to undermine and defeat an opponent. There are players who simply ADORE trolling an opponent's thread, planting misinformation, and reveling in the amount of mayhem that can be caused by effectively managing the flow of information in and out of the clan. An effectively managed rumor can denude an opponent's moral, sap his will to soldier on, or even cause his members to make mistakes or leave his camp.

It seems to me that our enemies have been making AMPLE use of this tool, while IRON RAIDERS seems to be satisfied to sit in the cheaper seats and allow various uncoordinated voices make a tiny disturbance in the waves of negative propaganda that are even now helping to erode our foundation.

Again, if this is an accurate picture, I have a few suggestions;

1. Recruit an Active Propaganda Minister who has the ear of leadership, and is in complete sync with it's aims and goals. This person would be our online Ambassador to the Wot forums, and would monitor our opponent's threads, making targeted and accurate responses where timely, trolling them where nessecary, and engaging in various bits of skulldugery and rat-fucking where needed. Nuff said.

2. Post up and maintain a Consulate thread and keep it current and up front, posting IRON RAIDERS take on the universe, again, always with an eye to dismay, discomfit and befuddle the enemy where ever possible.

3. Make sure our members understand that there is an IRON RAIDERS voice, and that they understand that IRON RAIDERS is in TOTAL CONTROL of what is said for our clan, and that talking shit about the clan or in any way lending comfort to our opponants in that forum is frowned upon, and can have immediate and dire consequences. It would be logical for the Ambassador and his staff to monitor not only our opponant's AGITPROP, but also make sure our own people don't go too far in expressing their own dis-satisfactions with our family and to encourage them to air their grievances here at home rather than in public.

Thanks for reading.