Leaders: What are your guild rules?

I'm interested to see what rules other guild leaders have instilled. I'm also interest in knowing what works for you as well as what hasn't.

Here are mine from our forum:

Please do not incessantly spam guild chat with dribble.

Also, please be clear with your communication, too many mispelled words or abbreviates may make you hard to understand.

The rules for Allaince Chat are like the rules for Guild Chat, only 1,000 times more strict. Please don't embarrass us in front of our alliance members. Do not swear on alliance tab, talk about sex, degrade women, make racist or religiously intolerant comments even if other alliance members are doing this, do not see it as an invitation to join in. You will most likely be kicked.

Do not throw tantrums or become the guild drama queen. In Ventrilo, in PvE, in groups in PvP... do not throw tantrums.

Be helpful to all players and nice to the noobs. Of course the noobs ask silly questions to those of us who have been playing for a year. Remember when we asked the same dumb questions, or wanted to but were too chicken because people are so mean to the noobs? When someone in Ascalon City is spamming local chat asking "HOW 2 INVITE HENCHIE TO MY PARTEE?", please don't respond with "omg newb stfu", but instead with "click on the henchman, and their name should appear in your party list. Then click the plus sign next to their newly appeared name". Again, don't spread the [HotR] name by being a jerk.

Do not put trade chat in local chat, using chat filter evasions like WT.B. That is annoying and rude.

If you get into an argument with a guild member, take it to a pm. No need to poison the guild tab with the disagreement. We are about keeping the peace in there.

[HotR] does not tolerate racist, or religious intolerance. Politics also don't have a place in the guild chat. Oh yeah all you dudes, you might also not want to forget that your guild leader is female before you make pervy sexist comments on guild tab. I have a sense of humor for the most part, but I will let you know if you take it too far.

Members have been kicked for doing the following on the alliance tab dependent upon the level of offense they took, whether they stopped when asked and/or if they appogized:
-Spamming about their political views and not stopping when asked
-Incessant shouting
-Bashing homosexuals
-Negative comments about people's religions
-Racist comments
-Spamming and begging for runs, amber, money, weapons, etc and not stopping when asked
-Degrading women, sexist comments that go beyond friendly flirting

I'm sure I sound uptight compared to other guild leaders. Maybe it's because I'm a teacher and I have to put up with 190 middle schoolers a day. I don't wanna deal with that kind of behavior when I get on the game. So far out of 70ish people in my guild, I've kicked about 10 for this in the past 6 months, so to me it's working. Everyone else respects the rules. I do have a sense of humor, I just don't like when people cross too far over the line. Say whatever you need to say to someone in a pm to solve your problems or do cyber*** if that's what you are into. Just keep it the heck off of my guild and alliance tabs.

Intriguing, to say the least.

I am curious, are members allowed to degrade men? Sex is a part of life but I can understand it can be an offensive topic if talked about in the wrong context.

Surely you, as the Guild Leader, needs to know of such a disagreement. I am sure guild chat would be preferable for me as a Guild Leader so that I may assess the problem first-hand.

Why on Earth not? It is a part of life and people have their freedom to express their politcal views.

a) Kicking someone for their political views is just the same as discriminating due to a religion, which you seem to be against. They are both personal beliefs.
b) I am not quite clear on your definition of bashing, I suppose there is a fine line between talking about homosexuality and views on it and being offensive to members of the human race who have a deficiency in a particular part of their brain causing them to be unnaturally attracted to the members of the same sex.
c) Once again, are members allowed to degrade men / transexuals / hermaphrodites?

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My guild rules aren't written as such due to my relationship with my guildies. We are all (I think) a close-knit group of friends, even though we may not know each other in real life. And 'Guild rules' are interpreted and brought about by the guildie's own morality. But I guess if I had to list something it would be:
Be kind, be supportive, be friendly. I think that about sums it up.

Ehrenia

Thy shall be pro.
Thy shall not play gimmicks.
Thy shall try to shout on promanians as much as possible.
Thy shall stop pve for pvp.
Thy shall talk b*sh*t as much as possible.

That's it I think, not sure, they're not written down, every body is trying to stick with them though.

Intriguing, to say the least.

No, members are not allowed to degrade men but that doesn't seem to happen because about 90% of the players are men. You are absolutely right that sex can be an offensive topic if used in the wrong context. We had a member who had recently gotten dumped by his gf, go off the deep end on the alliance tab which is how that rule came about. I could definitely look at rewriting it in a more general context.

If it's petty crap taking up space on guild chat that nobody else cares about and ruining the fun and the mood, then yes, take it to a pm. The members know they can come to me with a legitimate issue about other members.

Just personal preference I guess. It always gets ugly bc nobody will change each other's mind and some people get a little too passionate and don't know how to debate.

Note with kicking someone for their political views, the key word I used was SPAMMING. I had a member that wouldn't shut up about how great Hitler was as a leader and he had really bad timing due to he was saying it on a Jewish holiday. I'm also talking about people slamming other religions and saying insensitive things under the assumption that everyone in the world is Christian or whatever. The general rule keeps people from spewing their agenda.
This is what was happening. Among other hateful spew about lesbians and or gay people. We don't all agree on other people's choices but no need to advertise your hate.
Ha! Point taken! I'll make that one more general.

Thanks for the tips and debate!

Glad to see you agree with nearly all of my points, as to advertising hate towards homosexuality, I was not, I simply stated the physical description of such a person. Read up journals and papers on studies of the homosexual brain, I am not expressing hate, merely fact.

Saying Hitler was a great leader is not a political view in my opinion, it is just a view, I am not saying the kick wasn't justified.

Ehrenia

We have rules or guidelines if you will. We don't specify specific examples but simple short summary statements.

Being Friendly and mature. All guild member are expected to treat each other with respect as well as alliance members. This means no cursing, swearing, degrading treatment or language of any sort. That's the big one.

We also have a rule against solicting or selling things to guild members. We give and trade but not for profit. The guild isn't a market for your wares.

Also no begging for gold. We don't have any to give you, but we'll help you make some for yourself.

As for the talking about politics in guild chat....we aren't a political discussion forum. We are playing GW. That has nothing to do with politics. We are trying to have fun play a video game not debate the finer points of foreign policy. Leave your discussions for the appropriate forums.

Yes we are playing Guild Wars too, a video game, for fun. But having mature conversations about the state of affairs in the world seems a fairly good conversation topic to me. I guess this makes the difference between a mature and non-mature guild, or perhaps just the difference between a guildie and a friend. We enjoy serious conversations about nearly anything and of course humorous conversations too.

Ehrenia

We discuss about beer, we take that very seriously.

Sorry, but I have plenty of friends IRL that I don't discuss politics with because we have agreed to disagree. This doesn't have anything to do with being "friends". It also doesn't have anything with being mature either. I am an older gamer and I like the little free time I have to just enjoy playing a video game. If I want to talk politics there are forums for that. I believe we just have different opinions on this one.

Having agreed to disagree means you conversed on the subject at some point. Find me an immature child with a definitive and firm political view then tell me it is not a mature topic. There are forums for everything, I fail to see your point. Being able to hold a conversation with someone makes someone more a friend that not.

Ehrenia

i bascically only have one rule:

DONT BE A DOUCHE!

pretty simple really

What a frighteningly immature way to put it, your guild must be so prosperous.

Ehrenia

Guild/Alliance chat is not a trade channel
No begging
Be respectful
Be helpful and active (atleast say hi once in a while in guild chat..)

My guild should get this rule, Scorpse wtb love all the time

well me and my friend are tryin somethin we've never seen before. We are tryin to make a guild onlyf ro necromancers and thats the only rule basicly.

My guild started as me and my best friend. We have no rules or requirements. Even though we now have 9 members, we still do not define or enforce any rules. My members appear to be adult enough to know how to act.

Perhaps the only unspoken rule: don't charge people the 100g to join.

We only have 1 unoffcial rule:

Be like Ivy

Unwritten Rules

Within Guild

- Respect each member and seniority

(you're a new member and you must know where you at but of course youll be able to voice your views but still youre new. treat everyone equally, whether he's a leader, officer or member)

- Loyalty to the guild is a must

(if youre a guildhopper, you're most likely to leave the guild after 5 minutes or leave the guild and join a better guild and comeback if the guild is doing well again)

- Accepting Individuality and Assimilation

(if youre guildmate is an ass to others but not to guildmates, its fine)


- Guildmates first before people in your friendslist

(why join the guild? just form a guild with people from your friendslist if that aint so.)

- Maturity

(petty fights are ok. if the fight is caused by not following the last rule, kick)

last rule - Must Support The Goals of The Guild

(why did you effin join a guild then if you wont be able to participate. kick.)


Outside the Guild

Do whatever you want as long as it doesnt hurt the guild reputation (i.e. Dont Fame Farm someone if your guild is opposed to it, dont play bloodspike coz its lame, dont scam in pve, etc etc) or its members. You can trash talk back if you're being trash talked at or you can initiate trash talks to someone who feels leetsauce (yes you can trash talk guilds who feel and voice out their superiority to other players).

but never ever insult a new player trying to play with you or asking questions.

We have written rules in the alliance around not selling on alliance chat, not spamming requests for help etc...

The rules in the guild can be summed up as:

Play nice; and
If you annoy Kes remember she has a big stick

(My beef with you is not your contention re: homosexuality originating in the brain--it's your use of "deficiency" and "unnatural" which is disturbing and unnecessary, whether or not you really meant it. If I had this convo with you over guild chat, I'd leave in an instant. THAT'S why you do not discuss politics in guild, we might have had fun playing together...)

Anyway, back on topic...

Our CoC is in written form--I'm a big fan of policy and procedure, makes everything simpler!--we like to minimize any misunderstandings.

http://www.bhgbheg.com/CoC.html

It is my belief that every guild ought to have a written code. Even if you have no rules, it should be written somewhere, "We have no rules! Anything goes!" So when one guildie complains to you about another one, you can say, "Well, you knew what you were getting into." And, when someone gets kicked for no discernible reason, they can't complain then either.

My husband is guild leader and these are pretty much the rules we go by (copied from our message board) :

-------------------------------------------------------------
Membership and Kicking

-) Applicants will post their interest in joining MEEP in the Join Request forum. The officers will review applications, and you may be asked to hop onto Ventrilo or Teamspeak to play a mission or PvP match.

-) MEEP has fairly open membership policies. All new recruits are invited in on a conditional basis. I, as well as the officers, reserve the right to kick new recruits if we feel that the new membership is just not working out. If you have any problems, please see the below point.

-) MEEP members will typically be purged after a month or two of inactiveness. We are happy to reinvite you. Don't throw a fit. You're back in the guild and no harm is done. Log on more please.=P---

-) This. Guild. Is. My. Responsiblity.

Members have put in a lot of work for this guild. Pezz and Sauce have set up boards. Xenex worked to find us webspace and a Ventrilo server. Esprit and Faer have recently been helping people set up IRC, while Talzek and others have been around to teach new members terminology and such. Without the hard-working members, [MEEP] would not be so great.

At the same time, I have been entrusted with keeping the guild running smoothly. Officers and members alike know that I keep them informed of Stuff, and ask their opinions or else get their votes on Stuff.

However, I am not afraid to go all Medieval Divine Right of Rule on your tail. I will usually converse with officers before I kick someone, but I don't have to. If you get purged because of an offense, or for inactivity, or who knows what, it may have been no one's decision but my own; and I have that right. Deal with it.

-) To be honest, we haven't had any real issues with kicking and such. Don't be a jackass in the first place and it won't be a problem.

Communications

Within the forseeable future (Lord willin' and the creeks don't rise), there's gonna be some changes around MEEP. I don't want to change the culture or MEEP, or make anyone feel uncomfortable; but as we talked about in our guild meetings, team [MEEP] is growing and needs some organization.

-) TeamSpeak and Ventrilo information (TS and Vent) will be given out to all MEEPers who desire it. If you wish to use either for your own PUG purposes, feel free. Please choose Vent first, since that is our own Vent whereas we our TS server is borrowed. I am sorry there can not be more, but I am paying for all MEEP expenses from my own poor college-age-with-wife-and-three-kids bank account. If MEEP needs a server for a guild/alliance activity, please be willing to get your teammates off TS or Vent to make room for MEEPers.

-) Get IRC info here. IRC is a form of online chatting. Whereas AIM, MSN, and Yahoo focus more on 1-to-1 conversations, IRC is essentially the über-chatroom program. There are multiple clients which you can use to log onto an IRC network, just as there are mulitple broswers like IE and FireFox which can be used to browse HTML pages.

Before long, MEEP is going to require that all users have IRC capabliities. You won't always have to be on IRC--but if we ever say "can you please get on IRC" and you respond "I don't have it".... there's going to be trouble. Don't worry; MEEP members are usually around to help you set up, and you are highly encouraged to explore IRC options anyway, because IRC is just that cool.

-) Participation on the board will be required. You're racked up 500 hours on that W/Mo of yours, so don't even begin to tell me you can't spend 2 minutes every few days checking for announcements.

-) We have held various Council (officer only) and full Guild meetings a few times throughout MEEP's existence on Guild Wars. The participation of all members has been greatly appreciated, especially since these meetings can last from a half hour to an hour, and sometimes (much) longer, depending on the subject and how much /dance is involved. Ideally, guild participation on the board will allow us to avoid forcing everyone to be online at once to discuss Important Things.

-) Please check guild announcements! Ya know, that thing that appears at the top of your chat box whenever you log in to a different character? If something important happens or an important thread is made on the board, it will be posted in the announcement. It is not our intention to try to trick you into missing something important so that we can yell at you about it later, for we are not your girlfriend (sexism ftw!). We will be reasonable, but we expect a reasonable amount of participation from you as well.

-) As a side note, MEEPers are encouraged to trade AIM names (but not MSN. MSN/YIM/ICQ/GTALK bites) or even email for outside contact, but it is not required--and if we hear of any harassment over non-GW clients, there will be trouble. I know where most of you live, and I will send the Stealth Ninja Bunnies after you, and your little dog too! Also, you will be kicked.

It goes without saying that harassment through GW will be promptly reported to ANet, probably resulting in the permanent ban of your account. Hope you bought it on sale. ^_~


Direction

MEEP is, always has been, and always will be a PvE oriented guild. You will never be forced to PvP.

Please reread the above bolded sentence. If you are ever concerned with PvP taking over the guild, please hit yourself in the head for your stupidity, because you obviously were too dim to read that bolded sentence enough times.

That said.

MEEP has decided to begin fielding a PvP team for Guild vs. Guild (GvG) and (Heroes Ascent). Ideally, this will consist of 10-12 members who will meet on a set schedule, probably beginning at once or twice a week. If we suddenly have more interested, we can definitely deal with that.

Of course, this means that often some people are going to be excluded. It is hard to run 8-man GvG with 14 people wanting to go. For now, those 14 people would be allowed to run two teams, either split 8-6 or 7-7, and run Henchies or PUGs. As MEEP gets better, however, there may/will come a time when only full 8-man MEEP (+ alliance and close friends) groups will be allowed to run.

Yes, MEEP is all about fun times and not about spazzing over rank. At the same time, please understand that some of us want to experience the high-end, competitive side of Guild Wars. We want to stay with our friends in MEEP, but please don't hold us back by whining about how they are making GvG too strict. Once we're on our way, we're going to be serious about GvG and HA. That means that if you don't have the skills needed for a build, or if we have too many people and have to focus on a core group, you may be asked not to participate in that night's GvG or HA.

This does not mean that you are worth less than other members; this is simple common sense. If you want to have a good 8-man GvG team, you need to focus on a core group of people. If you want to rake in a tone of fame and win halls, you need to focus on your usual players.

If you are not currently part of that core group, be patient and wait until next GvG season to get in.

And of course, Hall of Heroes (HoH) will always be open to even crap experimental builds. Who cares if we lose to a n00b team in HoH? It's not like we get negative fame for that. XD

Spirit and ettiqute

-) You will not incessentally spam Guild Chat with dribble.
One or two requests for help is fine, as well as asking to buy or sell or trade something. 284902842 lines of text is not fine. Also, please use complete sentences and proper English where appropriate. Keep in mind that we are often busy, doing missions or PvP when you are talking. If we don't respond to you immediately--or even twenty minutes later--chances are it's because we don't have time.

-) The rules for Allaince Chat are like the rules for Guild Chat, only 1,000 times stricter. Please don't embarrass us in front of our alliancemates. Except when they are being similarly stupid. Then, feel free to shame yourself with them, so long as it's obvious that it's the smart people having good fun, and not the dumb people just being dumb.

-) You will say 'gg' after battles in the arenas, HoH, and GvG; and if it was a really good battle, wish the other team luck in the next round. If someone is a jackass, you are free to call them on it; but otherwise, remember that it's just a game and, if they beat you, then you should wish their skillful selves the best. If MEEP is to be known for something, it should be our attitude when playing with others.

-) Do not throw tantrums. In TeamSpeak, in Ventrilo, in PUGs in PvE, in groups in PvP... do not throw tantrums. Calling out someone's stupidity or stubbornness is fine, but do it with class, dignity, and preferably subtley; because nothing is funnier than when you call someone an idiot in front of the whole group, and everyone gets it except the idiot.

-) Be helpful. When someone in Ascalon City is spamming local chat asking "HOW 2 INVITE HENCHIE TO MY PARTEE?", please don't respond with "omg newb stfu", but instead with "click on the henchman, and their name should appear in your party list. Then click the plus sign next to their newly appeared name". Again, don't spread the MEEP name by being a jerk.

-) Do not put trade chat in local chat, using chat filter evasions like WT.B. You will be suspended/kicked/banned from MEEP for being a complete and utter jackass.

-) We have Younger People playing the game. All words are permissible, but keep in mind that you may be asked to tone it down if an officer or another member sees that younger players are online. Be mindful, and remember that while YOUR mother may not play Guild Wars, the mother of MY children does--and my 6-year-old farms Charr on his mommy's W/Mo. Please. Think of the 6-year-old gamer.

The End

Whoo! You made it to the end! Here is a "get out of Demotion free" card for you!

Above all else, please remember to TALK to me or any of the officers if you don't like something that is going on. We can't make this guild better for you if you decide to whine like a bitch to yourself and /ragequit Guild Wars. SHARE AND CARE ftw!

agreed.

but anyway - also agreed about the written code. we have guidelines posted on our yahoo group page. just general things we had in mind when we made the guild, and we want to keep everything fair. no hand-outs (plenty of help, discounts or free items at seller's discretion, but don't expect it free, etc). obviously, help/company is free. we're just here to have fun and help people with quests and missions all the time. mainly so we could gather a guild of like-minded individuals. we don't have a written rule about politics, religion, etc - it just doesn't come up. racist comments are (very obviously) prohibited and would result in an instant kick. as would any derogatory comment of any sort whatsoever. (be it homophobia, sexism, anything).

I just Have a few rules in my Guild:

Be Friendly to your fellow guildies, Get to know each other by doing missions and quests
Don't ask to become an officer until you actually take the time to ge to know everyone else(Its my own personally policy that i never promote someone just for joining or becaus you have lots of gold or level 20's, I don't care, you don't take the time you won't get far. and really its not so much to ask)
No extreme bashing of other peoples religion, race, political prefrences or homosexuality,(I don't really care, cracking jokes is fine as long as you don't take it to far, Like no racial slurs I don't put up with that kinda of crap)
Don't ask for weapons, gold, materials, just because, only ask if you really need help getting stuff, I usually go out and get my guildies max dmg weapons...its more or less a gift really but basically i'm saying if you can get it yourself, Get it yourself!
Swear all you want!!!
We're pretty laid back other than those few things...I don't really give a crap if people want to have political discussions ect, if other guildies find what another is saying offensive they can talk to me or settle it themselves

I just recently added a section for rules for officers as well because I was getting complaints from members about officer conduct. I had all the officers read this on our site and sign it. That way demoting them can be justified. Yeah yeah call me strict and crabby, I'm a teacher for God's sakes! I'm also in a 90% adult guild so our expectation are a lot different than guilds that don't have an age req.