Recommendations or Random? The Community Will Decide

Since Clan Finder launched, one topic has probably created more debate than anything else:

How should clans be displayed?

It might seem like a small thing, but where a clan appears on the site matters. Most players looking for a clan aren’t going to scroll forever, so naturally there’s value in being one of the first clans they see.

Up until now, recommendations have played a big part in that.

Some clans have put a lot of effort into building their recommendations — asking members to support their listing, sharing Clan Finder with their communities and even running their own campaigns and giveaways.

Understandably, some of those clans aren’t too happy about the idea of changing the default display to random.

On the other hand, smaller clans have welcomed the idea. They might not have hundreds of members to call on for recommendations, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re any less active or aren’t a great clan to join.

So the question has become:

Should the clans with the most recommendations continue to appear first, or should every clan get a random chance at being at the top?

Why Keep Recommendations?

For some clan leaders, recommendations aren’t just a popularity number. They represent the work they’ve put into their listing and community.

ThisHow shared their thoughts:

“I hope that there will be some pre-selected filtering on it. I love what you’ve made and the way it works, it’s just really sad to see that this may turn out to be less benefitting for the actual player searching for a clan.

High recommendations serve as proof of the effort put in by the clan owners too. Lack of recommendations may serve as proof of little effort or low activity in general.”

Another member of the community felt similarly:

“Feel like it’s a little sad to see that the listing is being changed due to lack of effort to gather recommendations.

The clans with most recommendations have gathered more traffic, more exposure to Clan Finder, benefitting the entire plug-in.”

And that’s a fair point.

A lot of Clan Finder’s growth has come directly from clans sharing the platform with their members and communities. Recommendations have given clans a reason to do that while also giving players some indication that a clan has an active community behind it.

Why Randomise It?

The other side of the argument is pretty simple:

Give everyone a chance.

A clan with 40 members is never going to have the same ability to gather recommendations as a clan with 500.

Randomising the default listings means a smaller clan could appear first one visit, while a much larger clan might appear first the next.

That could help players discover communities they otherwise wouldn’t have seen.

But there’s a downside here too.

As Holy Empire pointed out:

“In theory it makes things more fair but then you’ll see clans at the top that could either be dead or have abandoned Clan Finder and will ignore all players attempting to join.”

That’s probably one of the biggest questions around random listings.

Giving everyone equal exposure sounds fair, but should a clan that hasn’t touched its listing in months have the same visibility as one that’s actively recruiting every day?

Not Everyone Thinks the Current System Is Unfair

Adult Cat, a moderator of the OSRS Clan Finder subreddit, had a different take on the debate:

“I don’t really see the issue. Every clan has exactly the same opportunities available. If a clan chooses not to ask its members for recommendations because they don’t want to bother them, that’s completely fair but it’s still a choice.

No system will ever put every established clan on the front page automatically. There will always be some metric that determines visibility.”

They also made another point that’s easy to lose in the discussion:

Getting someone to click your clan is only the first step.

“If your clan is inactive, poorly managed, or not what players are looking for, they’ll leave immediately.

In the end, players stay because they enjoy the atmosphere, the events and the people. Those are things no amount of advertising can purchase.”

And ultimately, that’s what Clan Finder is supposed to be about — helping someone find a community they actually want to stay in.

So, We’re Putting It to a Vote

There are good arguments on both sides, and rather than continuing to go back and forth on what we think is best, we’re leaving the final decision to the community.

The vote will decide the default display players see when browsing clans.

• Most Recommended — clans with the most community recommendations appear first.
• Random — clan listings are shuffled, giving different clans the opportunity to appear at the top each time.

Players will still be able to search and filter clans to find what they’re looking for. This vote is simply about what everyone sees by default.

Have Your Say

The deciding poll is open now in the Clan Finder Discord and will remain open until 12 August 2026.

Whether you run a clan, recruit for one, or you’re simply a player using Clan Finder to find your next community, we’d like you to have a say.

Recommendations or Random?

The community decides.