LD fellowship bot up and running!

[Podunkmer]

While I hunt in that fellowship I "lose" some of the hunted XP to it.
Some of those XP are passed up to me which in return raises the threshold to pass up 100.01% and being a "contributor". So I am hurting myself twice for the good of the community...

I admit that the XP amounts involved probably are neglectable.
Nevertheless it is an interesting "problem"

An interesting problem, but for most people, it is resolved by the fact that this chain has a quota cap. Looking at the stats right now, the cap is in effect for pretty much everyone from Nausicaa up. That means that you aren't any more likely to go into failing because of the XP that the horizontal chain is pushing; you're already at the quota threshold.

But it does mean that for that period you are in the hunting fellow, you probably will be earning less XP directly. But the idea of a 24/7 horizontal chain is that when you're logged off, someone else will be in the fellow passing you XP through it, and when enough people join in the fun, it will eventually pass you more XP that you might have "lost" while hunting in the fellow.

Also, the immediate "loss" is far more pronounced in smaller fellows. When you have 4 people hunting with only 2 or 3 leeches, you will probably still be making more immediate XP than you might have solo, and the XP the leeches are putting into the chain should be sweetening the deal. But yes, when it's just one person and 2 leeches, it can be a significant (as much as 40%) loss in XP.

[Trekman]

If you are wanting to level a trademule character it will probably be more efficient to hunt with him/her in a fellowship of two with yourself as the other character. If you are wanting to put some XP into the bottom of the Food Chain, it is probably a much cleaner approach to leave the fellowship made up of all chain vassals.

That is exactly my problem - I want both. And my playing time is not long enough to do both sequentially, so I thought about doing it simultaneously.

Personally I do not care whether my mule or the chain fellows get the most efficient XP from my hunting. I find it better to give all of them a fair share than giving one the best share and nothing to the other.
For instance 50% of my hunting for the chain fellows *and* my mule are better than 55% of nothing for one of the two......

As you said it is probably more a problem of politics than of raw numbers.
What I can imagine is a rule like "everyone contributing to that fellowship may join one other non-chain toon while and as long as (s)he is hunting for the fellowship.".

If you strictly prohibit it people might grab the "MP-AL idea" for themselves without contributing to the chain fellowhip - which leads to more and more such fellowships, but not more XP for the chain.....

An interesting problem, but for most people, it is resolved by the fact that this chain has a quota cap. ..... That means that you aren't any more likely to go into failing because of the XP that the horizontal chain is pushing; you're already at the quota threshold.

You are right as far as passing/failing the quota is concerned.
But I was referring to the trend that seems to evolve in this board (especially in OH matters) to speak of "contributors" that pass up 100%+ and those "somehow leeches" that *just* pass the quota cap and therefore remain under 100% total passup.
Every single XP passed up to me forces me (or my non-chain vassals ) to do more if I want or have to be a "contributor".
Now if I myself produce the XP that are passed up to me I sort of sabotage myself in this respect.....