Once upon a time, there was a guild website ....

... and then another, and then another.  I spent many days over time trying to find an acceptable home for the online presence of our little guild - somewhere that gave us enough features to not feel restrictive, even in the "free" version; somewhere that was easy to keep updated with all the various information we might need; somewhere that was easily accessible by guild members who, perhaps, only had 5 or so minutes a day to check into the website.

Over time we tried, tested and moved on from several homes (many never even got past the "just testing" stage).  We eventually came to a halt at Wowstead .... a flexible "family run" type of host who made us feel like we were part of a community and encouraged everyone to help each other.  I thought we had found a home for a considerable time and, when they announced they were being taken over by Curse, with a sleeker interface, better looking site with more WoW integration, I was looking forward to the changes with anticipation.

Unfortunately the changes that came about were, in nearly all cases, for the worse.  Unless we accepted every single aspect of the new website, which was set in a rigid format, and generally kept quiet about any problems or bugs, customers were treated like crap.  I was willing to put up with the bad customer service, horrible messages from their staff and a general "big brother" approach to everything I did, giving them the benefit of the doubt.  I was convinced that, eventually, they would see the error of their ways and improve.

Alas, that was not to be and, after several months of harrassment and poor service, I made the decision to move the site.

Which is how we ended up here, at Guildlaunch.

Guildlaunch have proved to be everything that EVERY other guild website has not. Yes, there are a few "ideas" that other hosting sites have taken on board, that haven't made it over to Guildlaunch yet ... but that list is fast reducing and, I suspect, there are a lot of features on the Guildlaunch site that other websites have not even thought of.

A case in point is the new Member Blog feature. Only a couple of weeks ago, I suggested this - and suddenly they have made it reality!  I can't take the credit though - I'm kinda assuming they were already working on it - but it is impressive the number of updates that appear on the site.

On the old Wowstead site, we waited months for standard widgets, that were already provided, to actually work (eventually they just deleted them, rather than fix them).  They are STILL failing to provide an adequate "rapid raid" type service, despite it being a promised part of their subscribers pack at the beginning of the year.

Guildlaunch not only have such a rapid response to problems that it can sometimes take only minutes for them to solve them, but they also have an impressive turnover of new features, often announcing several new features per week.

by Poisonenvy on 2011-07-07 03:10:36