As a reminder to guild members .. we are all in a guild. We are all in a friendly (hopefully) inclusive guild. The ethos and goal for our guild is to support each other, help out when possible, join events and run group events together. We also encourage people to try to understand and be supportive of others. We are fully aware that not everyone is perfect .. everyone has their little issues, like getting lost in even the smallest of rooms, or accidentally falling off edges regularly, or even just ninja-pulling bosses. This is one of the great things about the guild, we understand that we can't all be perfect and we remain inclusive regardless. I realise that some content does require a certain line to be drawn .. for example we use gear/ilevels to help give us a "line" for raids and, often, dungeons. But there's also another line, linked to ability. This is fairly difficult to deal with but essentially most people deal with it one of two ways .. they either say "no, you're not good enough", or they say "you just need to do a bit of learning". Our guild stands firmly on the learning side of things.
We have had many, many people join our guild who had never raided, PvP'd or done dungeons before, yet once they'd had a bit of encouragement, turned out to be great. They just need that opportunity.
Recently we have been having groups formed that do not adhere to the ethos of the guild .. people are organising things in private, not randomly "oh shall we do that today" but specifically and exclusively creating set groups, often excluding even the opportunity of joining to any other guild members, even when there was space.
I understand that sometimes certain things require a certain skill level .. and if you deal with things in the open, people will understand if they ask to join a group and you tell them you need more experience first. The majority of guild members are actually much more conscious of their skill levels to the point where fairly regularly people take themselves out of the running even for things they could no doubt do.
Getting down to the crux of the matter then ... I have no problem at all people going into LFG and pugging anything. Raids, dungeons, etc. If they do not want to do them with a guild group, or there's no-one around at the time to do it with, that's completely understandable.
If you're about to join or create a pug group, I have no problem at all with other guild members joining you. What I do have issue with, is when you create a group in secret. Especially when it's a group where you have additional spaces that need filling and no mention of it goes out to the guild as a whole. Even more so, when it starts becoming a bit of a routine.
Once this happens, it starts looking very much like a clique .. where a group of people do group content primarily amongst themselves, to the exclusion of other guild members.
Taken from our guild rules, that everyone reads and accepts prior to joining us:
"Cliques" are not pack ... they lead to ... Drama. Guild members are encouraged to run dungeons, raids, etc, together. However, we expect people to continue the ethos of our "guild raid" organising, ie, "first come, first served". Group content is an excellent way for members to get to know each other, to learn from each other, to teach each other - to become "pack". There will always be someone who isn't quite as good at something as someone else, or someone who doesn't seem to get your jokes, or someone who gets lost ALL the time (*whistles casually*). However, if you feel that you are too good for some members of the guild, you're in the wrong guild. If you wish to do group activities with other guild members, please ask in guild chat for volunteers. Please do your best to accept offers on a "first come, first served" basis. Do NOT contact people privately or via other channels. This leads to "cliques" forming, which leads to unrest and drama. Obviously, if you're already in a group with four other people and you want to run a dungeon, feel free to ask them, but if you need an extra, or you're starting up a new group, please ask in guild chat so as not to exclude others. There is no point in being in the guild, if you're always going to only interact with a few other members.
I'm happy to discuss this rule with people, to clarify it .. but it has been a guild rule for a long time, it just seems pretty common sense to me, for our type of guild, and it won't be changing. If people join our guild and do not like the way it is run, then they are welcome to try and find a guild that is more suitable. We have lots of guild members who have been in a variety of different guilds before, so if we're not a good fit, we could probably even point you in the direction of a more suitable guild.
I'd also suggest that raiders re-read the guild raiding rules, especially the section about setting up and managing raids. Again .. this has been a guild rule for a long time, it's not going anywhere, everyone should have read, understood and accepted it at the time: https://www.darkwolves.eu/gwiki/index.php?page_name=Raiding_Rules&gid=180473#settingup
I am more than happy to discuss any guild member becoming a raid leader, if they feel they could help out/improve our raids.
Finally .. please be aware that the guild has a lot of people in it. We all have different views and outlooks. What seems just a little, basic thing, to you, can have ramifications for the guild that you're not aware of. The guild has been around since early 2007. For the majority of that time, I have been the guild leader and I like to think that I've done generally a fairly okay job. That may well be down to my just quite liking admin (such a saddo!) but also that I feel I can see what the results may be of things changing. Everyone joins our guild for something slightly different, they stay because they like it. Any change could potentially upset long-standing guild members and make the guild no longer feel like their WoW home.
