- COMMANDMENT 1: Thou shalt not troll thy guildies.
No, really. Trade is for trolling. And no one wants guidies who troll. Especially not in G or in the forums. Don’t be that guy. You can’t win at the Internets. And there is no winner in a difference of opinions. Put down the mouse and step away from the forums. - COMMANDMENT 2: Private forums can not ever remain truly private.
There’s this function called copy/paste. And this other one called screenshot. If you slam your guild in an application in another guild’s private forums, rest assured it will get back to your guild. Or make its way onto your realm forums. Watch your back. Same holds true for your own guild’s forums. Save your racial slurs, sexist remarks and porn links for some place that will appreciate them. If you can’t say something nice, maybe you should log off. - COMMANDMENT 3: The way you treat declined apps will influence your future rounds of applicants, and the way one responds to their application being declined will influence their future guild opportunities.
If you are nasty to failed applicants, putting them down and acting holier than thou, you’ll scare off future applicants. Likewise, if you are declined for not meeting a guild’s requirements or needs, and you swear at the officers and stalk them online, word will get around that you are a crazy person. Treat guild forum applications like a blind date with someone who knows all the other hotties in your neighborhood. - COMMANDMENT 4: DBAD.
Don’t be a d***. This seems obvious, right? Go look at my post on how to lose friends and annoy guildies thorugh your guild forums then come back here. That’s right. DBAD. Thank you. - COMMANDMENT 5: Save the drama for your momma.
Some people seem to live for starting drama on their guild forums. Perhaps you should consider a career in writing for daytime serial dramas. I guarantee that no one appreciates your /emo, your /flounce, your /devils advocate for every opinion or post shared on the forums. This is especially true for interpersonal dramas. If you have a rpoblem with a guildie talk it out — in private.
Major thank yous go out to all my tweeps who gave input and ideas for this list, especially to Druidis4fite. What would you add to round out a top 10?
Heh — great list. Let’s see…
* LEARN WHAT A “PM” IS. See that button marked “Send Private Message” or some variation? It’s very helpful. Discussion between you and a guildy getting a bit heated? SEND A PM, don’t flame each other in public. Want to correct someone without starting a fight? SEND A PM. It’s amazing what you can ask or say WITHOUT starting a fight, if you do it *in private*.
* NOT EVERYONE HAS A 30″ MONITOR OR A 50MB/s CONNECTION. Your photoshop art skills are wonderful, but post a thumbnail with a link plx?
Nice list! I would add:
If you are relatively new to a guild, don’t oppose every change announced by leadership by waxing nostalgic about how good the old days with the guild were back when everything was golden and shiny. Leadership will have a much more extensive memory of the way things used to be and a much more clear idea of where things are headed.
I do wish more folks would PM rather than take things to a public pissing match. And point well taken RE: the graphics file sizes. I *usually* remember to make a smaller one that links out to a bigger one…
🙂
Chicken Little has nothing on many guildies for sure… I think you can also see a similar issue with newer players versus old timers with expansion-related angst that can get blown out of proportion.
Very good points all of them. I can’t think of anything to add at the time, but I very much agree with the PM comment someone made above 🙂
I’d say similar rules should apply to guild chat as well. If you want to call someone out for being an idiot/saying something stupid.. maybe you want to whisper them first and say it nicely – maybe then they’ll actually listen.
Agree completely that /w usage could greatly create a more civilized gchat experience overall.
🙂
Also, hate it when two folks carry on a dialogue of no interest to anyone else other than themselves for a half hour. Bleh!