01-04-2005, 05:04 PM
Alright this is what I see this all boiling down too.
The guild is run on trust. Everyone who is a member of the Lurker Lounge website is welcome because well we aren't a guild, we are a group of friends. Everyone who is in the guild can add members to the guild because well it is your friends you are dealing with. That is great, we all like that.
I'm going back to rule number one in Skandranon's Mage's guide. Things will go wrong. I see Tal wanting to have something in place for when that happens yet tryin to keep things as loose as possible. Administration will have to happen, even if we aren't a guild, but a group a friends. I know my friends bicker. I know some of my friends are intimidated about asking others of my friends things, or just don't deal with them well. I know things go wrong. I know who I can talk to when they do as do they. But I don't have 200 friends. The guild could easily get that big easily, the site got big after LoD, and there were a lot of those people who were good people. We want the site to get bigger. As it does so will the guild.
Tal wants to make it clearer who you can go and talk to when rule one crops up, and keep things off the forums, because we aren't a guild site. Not everyone wants to be that someone who helps with the admin or is the person that you go talk to. It took him some time to have me accept the "rank" of Lounger, but ultimately I felt it was a good way for me to contribute to the web site albeit through the guild. I don't post a lot because most of what I would want to say has been said, but I do take it all in. I agreed that we do want some in game way of knowing who to talk to when rule one happens and I figured I could do well with that.
The other point that Treesh raises is that in game we are seen as a guild because we are a guild to everyone else in the game. We are generally better players because we read the forums and we can apply that knowledge we pick up here and elsewhere. That is going to attract attention. It isn't easy for some people to say "sorry I can't invite you, but check out the forums" and the rest of that conversation to someone who is clearly a good player and could easily do good things at the forums. But most could say "I can't invite you in, but you can talk with so and so about it" after checking the list for an online "officer". I know some people are going to come back and say "What member won't want to talk about the site!" you're being silly with this point. Not all Lurkers are the same; some are more Lurkers than Loungers if you will. If the guild is only active posters, you just set up a clique on the forums. There are already discussions in the general forums about this site being intimidating for new members. If you have a guild that you can only be in if you are an active poster, you just made that worse. Of course Mongo isn't saying you need to be an active poster to be in the guild and I think we all agree with that as well. So, how do you get in the guild? How, if you have read the forums and learned but haven't really wanted to post, but you want to play with these people do you get in the guild? We have to be prepared to deal with the rest of the game that sees us as a guild, which is another reason why the rest of this thread is a good thing we are dealing with that now. Having a friendly mechanism to help facilitate things like this is a good thing I feel.
I would think most good players that get invited into the guild and are then shown the forums are going to at least lurk at the forums if not contribute a whole lot. I like having a way to start someones association with the site from the guild side of things. We want the site to grow, we expect it to grow, I think the members in the guild can be trusted to recruit for the website if you will from within the game. However rule one will crop up so we want something to handle it.
When I get fully caught up I'll respond directly to points as well, but I wanted to get my general thoughts out there.
The guild is run on trust. Everyone who is a member of the Lurker Lounge website is welcome because well we aren't a guild, we are a group of friends. Everyone who is in the guild can add members to the guild because well it is your friends you are dealing with. That is great, we all like that.
I'm going back to rule number one in Skandranon's Mage's guide. Things will go wrong. I see Tal wanting to have something in place for when that happens yet tryin to keep things as loose as possible. Administration will have to happen, even if we aren't a guild, but a group a friends. I know my friends bicker. I know some of my friends are intimidated about asking others of my friends things, or just don't deal with them well. I know things go wrong. I know who I can talk to when they do as do they. But I don't have 200 friends. The guild could easily get that big easily, the site got big after LoD, and there were a lot of those people who were good people. We want the site to get bigger. As it does so will the guild.
Tal wants to make it clearer who you can go and talk to when rule one crops up, and keep things off the forums, because we aren't a guild site. Not everyone wants to be that someone who helps with the admin or is the person that you go talk to. It took him some time to have me accept the "rank" of Lounger, but ultimately I felt it was a good way for me to contribute to the web site albeit through the guild. I don't post a lot because most of what I would want to say has been said, but I do take it all in. I agreed that we do want some in game way of knowing who to talk to when rule one happens and I figured I could do well with that.
The other point that Treesh raises is that in game we are seen as a guild because we are a guild to everyone else in the game. We are generally better players because we read the forums and we can apply that knowledge we pick up here and elsewhere. That is going to attract attention. It isn't easy for some people to say "sorry I can't invite you, but check out the forums" and the rest of that conversation to someone who is clearly a good player and could easily do good things at the forums. But most could say "I can't invite you in, but you can talk with so and so about it" after checking the list for an online "officer". I know some people are going to come back and say "What member won't want to talk about the site!" you're being silly with this point. Not all Lurkers are the same; some are more Lurkers than Loungers if you will. If the guild is only active posters, you just set up a clique on the forums. There are already discussions in the general forums about this site being intimidating for new members. If you have a guild that you can only be in if you are an active poster, you just made that worse. Of course Mongo isn't saying you need to be an active poster to be in the guild and I think we all agree with that as well. So, how do you get in the guild? How, if you have read the forums and learned but haven't really wanted to post, but you want to play with these people do you get in the guild? We have to be prepared to deal with the rest of the game that sees us as a guild, which is another reason why the rest of this thread is a good thing we are dealing with that now. Having a friendly mechanism to help facilitate things like this is a good thing I feel.
I would think most good players that get invited into the guild and are then shown the forums are going to at least lurk at the forums if not contribute a whole lot. I like having a way to start someones association with the site from the guild side of things. We want the site to grow, we expect it to grow, I think the members in the guild can be trusted to recruit for the website if you will from within the game. However rule one will crop up so we want something to handle it.
When I get fully caught up I'll respond directly to points as well, but I wanted to get my general thoughts out there.
---
It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.
It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.