Paladinftw

[Paladinftw]

Hey guys,

As you may have seen or heard, Paladinftw is no longer in KNights of Mercia. I am sorry for departing the guild but I just thought it was time for some new scenery. Also, and I'm sorry for saying, but for top level within the guild, it is going nowhere. Everybody is thinking it so I thought I should actually say it. I mean I know the guild is suppose to be relaxed and all, but there is no point in going around the truth when everyopne is saying it behind the scenes.

I have moved to a guild called Shadowknights. It seems quite a good guild and it also happens to be the place where Alex and Dan moved to.

I still have my alts in the guild by the names of Warriorftw (42 Gnome Warrior, Fury atm but will be going Arms soon I think and will be Prot from 60) and Priestftw (36 NElf Priest, going Disc/Shadow) who I have just transferred from my old server. I am hoping to be leveling them up in the next few months but my main priority is to get Pala in some decent gear first.

Well guys, this isn't as much a goodbye but an explination for the actions, and if you ever need Pala for anything you can whisper me and I'll see what I can do. I'm not turning my back on the guild that welcomed me to Shadowsong. If I can help I will as much as possible.

Well guys, I'm sorry but it had to be done. Pala will no doubt see you all soon at some point.

- James

Note: You can also reach me here on the forums as I check here daily.

[Magorian]

A problem obviously compounded by another level 70 leaving, an issue which we can do absolutely nothing about since we don't have enough for kara. I have talked many times about this but the general feeling in guild is that we should not disband, so we'll carry on along this path till everyone leaves I guess. Always welcome for suggestions/opinions but the simple fact is we won't keep raiders if they can't raid.

[Sandmann]

Carrying on down a path  where you predict people will leave is ultimately destructive and in itself will make people go, as they are having a miserable experience. So I guess the thing that needs to be done is discuss the options and decide who wants to do what, and who is willing to make the effort. It's very easy to talk about something for ages and then have it peter out when it comes to actions.

The way I see it the options are the same as they were around March when this was raised before. The guild could disband, the leadership could change, we can recruit or we can get an arrangement going with another guild. That could either be a bigger guild who use us for any spare spaces instead of a pug, or a smaller guild and we try and get a raid group between us.

Disband

I think mags is right and the general feeling has been that no-one wants this. Its a friendly guild and the fact that people have left their alts and are willing to help out indicate there must be something good. If we were the guild from hell they would have buggered of never to be seen again, they haven't. So there is something good - despite the fact there is stuff to fix.

Leadership

Mags raised it before; does anyone else think they would be more suited? Mags, the question no-one seemed to ask however, is do you still want to do it, because that's just as important - if not more so. The fact is regardless of who the guild leader is, or whoever the leader of a raid or event is, they cannot do things on their own. They need the support and input of the guild and people who will be willing to help with the course we decide to take. I don't think it needs a to be a lot of us, but it would make a big difference. There are a lot of people who have put a big effort into organising things - Herc, Fly and Cosmo to name a few. What does everyone who puts the effort in need that will help make this easier?

Organisation

Several people who have left have said that things appear to be disorganised. Sometimes we're all so busy telling each other how much we don't mind what we do that we never do anything - which we all really mind. How can we avoid this? It's something we need to think about because it was a criticism that came up before the numbers were really bad, and if we don't resolve it it will come up again - or just cause people to leave and we end up in a vicious circle.

Recruitment

There are two types of recruitment we can think of - casual and focused.

Some of us team and pug more than others, and therefore come into contact with people who are nice and guildless, or just looking for a change - and the idiots destined for your ignore list. So for casual recruitment these people may be better placed. However given the fact we would want to be back at least raiding Kara asap we may want to be a bit more focused. That would probably involve announcements and deciding what we want/need as a minimum to get going again. Its something we need to discuss, but instead of it petering out someone needs to start doing it. So if recruitment is something we decide to do then it needs to start quickly - before its a case of will the last level 70 turn out the light please.

As soon as we have decided what we need I don't mind helping with recruitment - let me know your ignore lists and I'll steer well clear of them. I have a list of bigger and smaller guilds to approach, some I have with a casual enquiry. Anyone have any preferences?

Well, thats the most i have written on anything other than an essay for quite while. I'm sure there are typos *sigh*.Guess its over to everyone else...

[Paladinftw]

The guild is good, just as you mentioned, there is little or no organisation. There have been efforts made by particular people, and they have been good, just people don't have so much time these days to continue the efforts.

With regards to your proposals:

Disband

I don't think this should happen. The guild is casual, and thats all I have ever known it to be, as well as friendly. All of my friends who I have gotten in to WoW and got in the guild like it and thinks its a really good guild. I think, personally, this should never happen.

Leadership

I think we should wait for a reply from Mags, but from what I have seen of Mags he doesn't really have the time to be the leader, in my opinion. I think the leadership should be given to someone within the guild who is active aswell as helpful. I think Marcus would be the perfect candidate as he is active as well as helpful to people. That isn't to say that there aren't any other possible candidates. Others to note would be Ash and Fly as you pre-mentioned.

Organisation

I think the thing to do here would be to put people in-charge of organising events. Such as raid organisers and heroic run organisers. I think this would help. That and making so that people PuG from guild before openign the search to outside the guild. This is a thing that I have found in Shadowknights that they always ask in guild before they open the search out.

Recruitment

I think that a bit of recruitment could be done. A thing I noticed straight away when I joined the new guild is that I went from seeing 3 - 10 members on all the time, to 8+. Most of them being 70 meaning that there is always an instance to be done. Another thing I think could help the guild would be for the 70s to offer help to lower levels more frequently. I think that the amount of low level members within the guild is good, but I think that more higher leveled ones could benefit the guild, and I think adding a focus to the guild would help to keep the members, such as maybe a focus on heroic runs or something. It looks as though a focus on raiding would be too big for the guild, and just leaving the guild as a casual guild would be too little, but I think adding the focus of grouping a lot and doing heroic runs togeather would really help, you all get gear, you all have fun, and you all do it togeather.



Well, those are my general thoughts on the whole subject. I hope as being the latest of the 70s to leave the guild I wasn't out of place in saying this.

[Twylyte]

I am sorry to see Paladinftw go I enjoy your company buddy. That said you will on the freinds list of course.

On the wider issue of the guild I have had a very long think about this.

First and foremost we need a guild leader who is energised about the guild and willing to re-initiate raiding as well as numerous other things. The current lack of organisation is leading to frustration and this does seem to be a slippery slope.

On the subject of Mags, for me it's a simple straight up comparison between Ben and whoever wants to do it. Ben seems less interested right now but somebody else needs to volunteer first. It is a big job. There are many people in the guild who I feel would not do as good a job as Mags and a few who might put a different spin on it.

What I spent a lot of time thinking about was whether I wanted to do it because I enjoy the organising aspects of Most Wanted and I'd love to get my hands on KOM. On reflection I think I'd only volunteer if the alternative was the guild disbanding and that would be to preserve my freindship circle of the 15 or so freinds that I have there. There are also some people I would get very nervous about leading the guild (even amongst that circle!!) and that might get a response from me also.

My position is that we find out what our options are first - If Ben wants to do it and, who else wants to do it. Then we can decide. Whatever the outcome if something does need to be done. 

[Paladinftw]

Mark, I think you would do a good job as guild leader, from Most Wanted I can see that you would be commited to the guild, and that fact that you know most of the people who are in the guild IRl anyway also helps to the fact and means that you can also talk things over with them outside of game as well.

For the organisation side of things, I had another thought. Shadowknights use the GroupCalander addon to organise everything. I downloaded it the other day and it is a really good little package. I think this should be looked at as I think it is a better package than GEM. Curse linkage:

http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/1958/

This shows all events in a calander month. When the event is selected you can see a description of the event giving you the options "Sign Up", "Can't Make It", "Not Sure Yet". Then you can see the people who have already signed up. It puts the people who have signed up into categories suchs as Tanks, Healers, Off-Tanks, Off-Healers, Ranged DPS, Melee DPS, Subs. Anyways, have a look at it and see what you think.

[Sandmann]

I think we really need to hear from Mags and other guild members...anyone...at all...?

[Sandmann]

Is there any way we can get this moved - perhaps under the "A change is necessary" discussion?

[Hercule]

Please continue to post in http://forum.forlorn-hope.org/index.php?topic=663.15

I will lock this thread if needed.