Preparing the Guild for WoD

[Poisonenvy]

 

Last night gave some indication as to the numbers we may possibly expect for the new, flexible raiding in Warlords of Draenor .. basically demonstrating that a 15 slot Ventrilo server would no longer be enough.

I have therefore now increased that to a 30 slot server which, hopefully, should hold us for some time (especially bearing in mind that the next jump in slot numbers is a fairly big one).

Most of the recent expenditure has either been covered by previous donations made to the guild paypal account, or I have covered it myself, however, even taking into account an additional recent donation (thank you!), we are still getting rather low on funds.

Can I therefore ask anyone who can to simply donate a small amount using our "Donate" button on the right hand side of the Home Page.  It is quick and easy to use.

The costs for running the various aspects of the guild presence are as follows:

Ventrilo: £20/3 months

Domain names: £1.00 each per month

Websites: $7 (USD) per month

Any questions, feel free to ask

[VooDruid/HK]

In order to save PE some money, i have installed a 32 slot Teamspeak 3 server on one of my VPS's.

This should save some money and we have full control over the server.

Currently there are 32 slots, but i can upgrade to 256 when needed, so there is plenty of room to grow.

The server information will be made available ingame soon!

There are some simple rules if you are using our Teamspeak server:

1. No harassment! If we get reports of harassment, you are first warned and when you get caught again, you are banned.
2. No hacking or abusing the server! If we get you, you are gone. Yes, we actively monitor for abuse, attacks or hacking attempts!
3. Speak freely, make it sassy, even some smut is allowed (watch the kids!) but we kick you off for racism or any other silly talk!
4. Use the appropriate channels! if you think we need a new room, ask for it ;) The current channels are:
1. Lounge: This is where you lounge and hang out. Feel free to come online, the server is open 24/7!
2. Raid room 1 and 2: These are meant for our raid teams. If you are not in a raid but want to listen in, please ask the raid leader.
3. Officer: This room is for officers to discuss (private) guild matters, it is password protected.
5. Do not invite non guildies over to join you on TS! The only exception is when flexing, for example with Samsara.
6. Have fun, and come over for a chat, even when not raiding ;)

Well, more info as it develops!

 

Regards, Michel.

[Reapzie]

 

Estoria-Mooh wrote:

or any other silly talk!

 

Damn it! I was hoping for silly chat about the merits of silly walking.

 

[Poisonenvy]

Just to keep everyone in the loop, we are still currently using the Ventrilo server, as it is paid for until 7th December.  During that time we will be testing the new Teamspeak server and putting together a guide of how best to use it.  Once the testing phase and guidance is up, I'd recommend everyone set up their Teamspeak software, so that it is ready to use when needed.

As we are intending to put at least one joint raid together with Samsara in the 40 man Molten Core Anniversary LFR, I will also be having talks with Samsara to find out how much space they have on their Teamspeak server, to see if they can cater for a potential 40 people at once using it.

If they can, then I will hopefully be able to let our current Ventrilo server contract lapse and we can start using the Teamspeak server that Mooh has kindly provided for us.

If they can't, then we will either look into increasing the capacity of our Teamspeak server, or simply extend our Ventrilo contract and size for an additional month.  The alternative would be that potentially 8 members of the Anniversary raid wouldn't be able to access voice chat.

As far as usage of Teamspeak is concerned, it should in effect be the same as how we currently use Vent (or TS with Samsara).  If there is any variation from that, we'll assess and let you know.

[Poisonenvy]

As an update to the above, we are in the process of looking into applying for an extension to the Teamspeak server Mooh is kindly setting up for us.  In order to do this we have to comply with various requirements, including an active website linked to the server, email addresses, etc.

One of those requirements is that we should have no advertising or requests for donations on the site so, as we have already had a lot of donations over the last week (thank you everyone, much appreciated!) I will take those buttons down again now - the donations you have made should keep us up and running well into this next expansion

If people would like to start testing and setting up access to the new Teamspeak server, the guide is up and running here.  Please note that if you are not a registered member of the guild and website, you will not be able to view this information.  If you have any problems, please let me know.

[*Maelynn*]

Poisonenvy wrote:

One of those requirements is that we should have no advertising or requests for donations on the site

 

Please explain this to me. Why would they disallow people to request donations? After all, a guild is a joint effort and it's more than reasonable to ask if people would be willing to chip in... it's not like you make it an obligatory fee or something, right?

[Poisonenvy]

*Maelynn* wrote:

Poisonenvy wrote: One of those requirements is that we should have no advertising or requests for donations on the site   Please explain this to me. Why would they disallow people to request donations? After all, a guild is a joint effort and it's more than reasonable to ask if people would be willing to chip in... it's not like you make it an obligatory fee or something, right?

 

Unfortunately I can't explain it.  They're perhaps trying to cover certain eventualities .. they're wanting to ensure that they only give the licences to those who will not charge for use of the slots, and the best way is to make sure there is no "donate/give money/pay up or else" button .. but that's complete conjecture. 

All we know is there are a list of rules we need to comply with whilst applying, in order to gain the licence, so we either comply with the rules, or we don't get the licence :p

Even then, we're not completely complying, because the same rule also states that none of the links on the site should go to other sites/pages that have advertising on .. but I just don't know how it is even feasible to comply with all the other requirements AND that one .. we're either an active, used website, or we're not .. and I don't know of any active website that doesn't have some links on to other web pages .. and the majority of pages on the internet have adverts for something on them.

I have to work on the assumption that, once they have assessed our site, they'll realise that we are genuine .. and that those rules are there as a "fall back" for them so that, if they want to refuse a site because they're not sure about it, they can do.

[Poisonenvy]

Apparently we've been refused our application to Teamspeak.  We suspect that it is because we'd forgotten to remove the "Donate" button from the Light Wolves site and, because we link fairly prominently to that site, it was against their rules .. although they haven't specified as such.

We have now removed that button and Mooh is going to reapply.  Really they should be able to tell that we're not going to be selling the slots on.  If we continue to be refused the licence for the larger Teamspeak server, 32 slots (which we get for free by default anyway) should be enough for the majority of the foreseeable future, even when the Light Wolves start raiding.  It would just have been nice to get the potentially 40 members of the Anniversary LFR raid all on one server ... but there is a possibility we can simply extend our Ventrilo contract for another month and increase it's size, to cater for that.

Anyway .. one further thing I'd like to mention about the donations we've received so far for the upkeep of the guild .. thank you VERY much for everyone who contributed, it will keep us going for a good long while.

I was approached privately by a guild member who was concerned that perhaps donating was a requirement of guild membership .. I'd just like to reassure everyone that there is NO financial requirements for guild membership.  If no-one donated anything, it would all still be here (at least until I became destitute!) .. it doesn't cost a huge amount to run the domains, websites and voice servers, but it's one of those things that trickles out over time, so it's nice to occasionally refill the pot.

Regardless of what is or is not donated, I'm happy to provide the infrastructure and time to ensure that guild members have what is required to keep us running.  It is just an added bonus if others help out (like Mooh is in the process of doing with the LW guild and Teamspeak).

 

[Sheiabah]

Well it seemed straightforward to set up at least so I have it all ready to go, just need a reason to use it (that doesn't involve Samsara ;P).

Well done Mooh for setting it up! I do feel bad about the level of input poor PE gives to the guild sometimes and I hope this takes a load off :)

 

[Poisonenvy]

Hehe .. I honestly don't mind, most of the time.  I don't know if you've noticed, but I can be a bit of a control freak :p (albeit one that gets lost and forgets things a lot!)

I really don't know if, following the anniversary LFR thing, we'll be doing anything else with Samsara.  Both guilds have enough raid members, I think, in order to raid by themselves - and now that it's flexible raiding, there is no need to leave people out.

I guess we shall just have to wait and see .. but currently my hope is that we can regularly raid with guild members only.

[Konfor]

Just out of interest, how does the pricing for Teamspeak and Ventrillo compare to Mumble? I used Mumble in another guild and it seemed a perfectly adequate application.

[Poisonenvy]

Well the Teamspeak that Mooh is setting up for us is free ... I've never used Mumble (nor had the need to investigate it before now) and Vent costs around $1USD per quarter per slot.

[Poisonenvy]

.. oh, and there is also an "overlay" that a few of us are testing out: http://www.overwolf.com/apps/chatnvoice/teamspeak-overlay ... this basically lets you see, in game, who is talking on Teamspeak, together with various other things.

[Poisonenvy]

I have now applied for the additional Teamspeak licence three further times .. two of which have been rejected.  The latest resulted in the majority of the widgets from the site(s) being removed in case they were the problem - which is why a few bits are now missing.  I am now waiting for the latest result.  I don't hold out a great deal of hope, which basically means that we are still able to use a 32 slot Teamspeak server that Mooh has set up for us, but if we need any further slots we will have to look elsewhere.

[Poisonenvy]

Good news!!!  AS I'm a completely stroppy bugger and just kept sending new applications in every time they rejected them, they finally decided the only way to get rid of me was to agree with me!!

So we now have our masshooof Teamspeak server licence!  Just need to work out how to get it set up now (over to Mooh!).