01-07-2005, 12:04 AM
I keep rambling and deleting my replies. Let's try again:
The Lurker Lounge is a public site. It has a relatively public forum with required registration and etiquette standards. This site focus is very broad, as strategy and game mechanics are fields which all gamers have an interest in so that they may use them to reach an end. The site has no gaming standards that I know of, except that cheating is forbidden (which may be virtually irrelevent with respect to WoW). In so far as the Lounge can even be called a gaming community, the flavor of Lurker Lounge gaming could be described as mainstream.
Then, the standards of the Lurker Lounge guilds can easily go beyond that of the Lurker Lounge site and forums. Therefor, what we really have here is a discussion of the standards of the Lurker Lounge guilds. Longtime Lurkers may view strategy discussion as an end in itself (such that they don't get bored discussing strategy even after they quit playing the games), but the site is designed also to accomodate people who are just interested in strategy and game mechanics in order to figure out how to play the game effectively. If the WoW section of the site becomes as hot as the D2 section once was, those people fluxing in and out will be the majority.
I say, then, that filtering people through the site is like filtering water through a hula hoop. This is not like the Asylum, where you could just discuss the nature of the site and 90% of the people would run away screaming. This isn't much of a niche group, until you get to the point of people who stick around here for months without losing interest.
The bottom line is that it becomes very difficult to discuss standards here and at the same time maintain that this isn't a guild site. Are we going to have discussions on this forum about whether someone should be kicked out of the guild? Are we going to kick someone out of the guild and yet they are still posting on the site? Are we going to have discussions on this forum about whether new poster Jimbo is fit to join the guild?
This leads me to suggest that the LL guild standards have to relate to the LL site standards, which pretty much means open to everyone except in cases of cheating, poor etiquette, or abusing the guild. If it is going to be any stricter than that, I would suggest spinning off into a more private community with it's own rules and forums, and possibly a different guild name (e.g. Angels of Hell in relation to the DSF). Or alternatively, drop the charade and make the LL an actual gaming community with a large public section and a small private section for discussing guild issues.
The Lurker Lounge is a public site. It has a relatively public forum with required registration and etiquette standards. This site focus is very broad, as strategy and game mechanics are fields which all gamers have an interest in so that they may use them to reach an end. The site has no gaming standards that I know of, except that cheating is forbidden (which may be virtually irrelevent with respect to WoW). In so far as the Lounge can even be called a gaming community, the flavor of Lurker Lounge gaming could be described as mainstream.
Then, the standards of the Lurker Lounge guilds can easily go beyond that of the Lurker Lounge site and forums. Therefor, what we really have here is a discussion of the standards of the Lurker Lounge guilds. Longtime Lurkers may view strategy discussion as an end in itself (such that they don't get bored discussing strategy even after they quit playing the games), but the site is designed also to accomodate people who are just interested in strategy and game mechanics in order to figure out how to play the game effectively. If the WoW section of the site becomes as hot as the D2 section once was, those people fluxing in and out will be the majority.
I say, then, that filtering people through the site is like filtering water through a hula hoop. This is not like the Asylum, where you could just discuss the nature of the site and 90% of the people would run away screaming. This isn't much of a niche group, until you get to the point of people who stick around here for months without losing interest.
The bottom line is that it becomes very difficult to discuss standards here and at the same time maintain that this isn't a guild site. Are we going to have discussions on this forum about whether someone should be kicked out of the guild? Are we going to kick someone out of the guild and yet they are still posting on the site? Are we going to have discussions on this forum about whether new poster Jimbo is fit to join the guild?
This leads me to suggest that the LL guild standards have to relate to the LL site standards, which pretty much means open to everyone except in cases of cheating, poor etiquette, or abusing the guild. If it is going to be any stricter than that, I would suggest spinning off into a more private community with it's own rules and forums, and possibly a different guild name (e.g. Angels of Hell in relation to the DSF). Or alternatively, drop the charade and make the LL an actual gaming community with a large public section and a small private section for discussing guild issues.