Couple Clause

Hello again! Look another blog post. So, if you are here there’s probably a reason and you wanted to know more about my clause. I just copied from my guild website about the clause, so here it is and we are going to break it all down.

In Salvation, we are no strangers to love and there are a good amount of couples that are either together, married or whatever. While I would love to say that in a perfect world, everyone will be happy in love and everyone will get along, we all know that at some point, things happen.

I like to open up with something cute and funny on my rules. I don’t know why, people seem to enjoy it so..

Expectations for our couples in the guild are not any different than we expect from single members. Everyone is to follow all the same rules and if you or your partner cannot handle this, then action can be taken if something was to stir.

Make the above KNOWN. Bold it, slant it, underline it.. anything. Just make sure they grasp this simple concept.

In regards to raiding, every raid member is their own person. Everyone will at one point be pulled aside to be enlightened on their flaws and how to help perfect this. With that said, if you are a couple that takes offense to one being told they are doing wrong or one being told that they need to change something, you have no place in raiding at all. The environment around raiding is all about change and adapting to what is going on. If you cannot handle change or anything like that, you should reconsider your spot in raiding.

Again, something that needs to also be stated.

Any couples caught becoming rude and aggressive over raid leaders or officers chatting to their partners will be dealt with in the following ways:
A) Warned


B) Suspended from the raid 


C) Kicked from the raid

Lay out the punishment order. Doing this will help show people that you are very serious about taking in couples and they are not above the single players out there.

Might be in order, might jump the order, depending on how badly you get offended. I like to say that we are pretty fair about getting on to each other. I know Dard yells at me when I am doing wrong, you guys just don’t get to see it because it is off vent. .. I am not sure I am suppose to smile at that statement. :<

Be a bit personal with this too if you are a leader in a relationship. It helps show people that even you are not above the rules. Also, Dard was my ex’s old character he used to raid with back in WotLK. Oh and also, laying out that punishment helps out for obvious reason, especially when you are dealing with issues on a bigger scale.

Anyways, as said, anything that is said in regards to your performance as a player is not a hit on your relationship or anything, but suppose to be an encouragement to fix what is wrong to better 9 other people in your raid and help you become stronger at your class. If you cannot accept being given criticism, raiding is probably not for you.

I felt it was really important to draw the future applicant to the point of nine other players. Usually if you remind them that it takes other people to make raids a success, they are less inclined to be jerks and actually support the group efficiently.

As side from the raiding, if you and your partner were to experience a sudden break up or an argument that spurred either in game or out of game, in respect to the guild, please leave it out of the guild chat.

Oh god, I love this portion of the clause. Speaks for itself.

Whatever ill feelings anyone brings into the game does transfer over and we would like to continue not to see a blow up happening from heated conversation between couples. If you feel that you are really pissed off and need to blow off some steam, I am here for all of you. Whether it is an ear to yak off, a PvP partner or just someone to go dick around with for a little bit, I am good to hang out. The same would apply to anyone in the guild that is not busy and can help you. Worse come to worse, if you can’t water down your feelings, please step away from the game, go for a walk and clear you head. Like any relationship, communication will be key and doing so with a clear head will stop an irrational choices, words or feelings from spurring.

As a leader of any sorts, you should always be there for your guildies. Especially as the guild leader. You don’t have to get all personal and such, but these people do look up to you and if you can lend an ear or arm, you are going to go far with gaining respect, trust and love from them. Really, it’s awesome. You get a chance to have such a unique relationship with everyone. Just state that you are there for them and leave it at that.

<3

The clause would be incomplete without a heart.

Raiding and Choices

In my years of being a raid leader, I’ve come to understand that sometimes making choices for the better of the raid results in a lot of butthurt. Kinda silly, huh? I think so. First and foremost, let me say this loud and clear:

YOUR RAID SPOT IS A PRIVILEGE, NOT A RIGHT.

I even went for the bold touch to just ensure someone reads this.

Now, why is that important to note? It seems more and more that raiders are beginning to feel entitled to their positions. This is wrong. As a raider, you are on the team because your leader has entrusted you to be the best of the best for yourself and your group. You are expected to always come prepared, ready and with a game face. If you fail to bring those three simple things, then you are doing it wrong. No, really. You are.

I cannot stress enough how frustrating it is as a leader that people cannot follow the basics of raiding. It’s like the logic to it eludes them. When you are not bringing your 110%, you know what that tells us? It screams that you are only here to waste our time. Especially if you are one of those many people that leaders invest time, gold and ect to get you up to par to be part of the time. You not being a team player suddenly becomes a terrible and wasted investment on someone who could care less about the team.

Now, I am speaking so.. harshly? I don’t know, I doubt this sounds harsh. Regardless, I note things like this because I have to deal with them on a daily base. If I can get maybe two or three of you to take flight with these words, your raiding career is just going to soar! Also, I may or may not have had an issue with a raider in the past few days that resulted in punishment and he felt very entitled to what his spot.

For my guild/raid leaders out there, it’s very important to lay out the rules of the raid so that you have a foundation for your raiders to stand on. If you make that foundation as solid as possible, the more likely you are to avoid issues down the line. For myself, I always told my raiders that I can understand and accept that mistakes do happen, but if the mistakes are continued repeats, then there will be other action taken.

I generally warn people about 2 times before I really come down hard on them. I also give a day or two in improving performance to better help the raid and more importantly themselves. There are guild/raid leaders who have no patience, which is kinda sad to me because I think patience is like a requirement for this job, lmao. Anyways, a little time spent, some warnings and nipping things in the ass is always going to be the best way to ensure you keep raiders on track.

You alone have to stress the importance of the three things they need to bring. Set the example and help them when they falter! Hooray.

GMotD

Guild Message of the Day.

Simple that’s what GMotD stands for. I feel like I have to say what it is because it’s so ignored! Why!?

I can’t say I’ve always checked the GMotD, but since my guild leading days began I check it like a hawk. Mostly because it does get used for some sort of real purpose. I also post a lot of reminders in it. Like.. ACCEPT OR DENY YOUR RAID INVITES.

Well, I already ranted on about this topic in my video. So how do you change this when your guildies decide to be blind? I happened to find my solution one night when we were goofing off with the message of the day. I ended up typing something like ‘HEY. I love you guys.’ One of my lovely friends and guildie remarked the day or so later that she felt the GMotD was yelling at her and it made her read it.

Who would have thought that something like HEY could be so attention grabbing, yea? Of course, now that I’ve been using it quite a bit my guildies have learned to tune out the HEY and now I need something new, but being creative to grab the attention of those that log in is the best way to go about correcting the issue.

If in the end all else fails and those guildies were too damn lazy to be caught up on their own accord, let them learn a lesson and have them sit out of a function or something. Maybe harsh, but hey! It does work.

Beep

Oops, Youtube wouldn’t let me have WALL OF TEXT in the box.

Okay guys, I wasn’t going to have a big opinion on this thread and those coming into, but I did get asked to post it up. For those of Moon Guard and the Livestreamers, please understand that this is an opinion from a very neutral stand point because I can sympathize with both sides.

I came to meet Towelliee and his fans through a TGN video posted up on our server forums. I will admit, I was upset that once again Goldshire was featured. In response, I decided to speak up in my own video and basically say shame on TGN for supporting people griefing the server. I had no idea who Towelliee was nor his internet fame, but when I awoke from my slumber.. boy was I surprised.

My video attracted a lot of his viewers. A lot of them were pissed I was against their fun and how they just brought more attention to the server. A lot of the comments were just making fun of my weight and things like that, which didn’t bother me because I am happy with who I am and their opinions didn’t even address my comments. So life goes on, yea?

I had explained to Indie in private messages that I am sorry and I do understand the fun they were having. I understand that it wasn’t Towelliee’s or hers intentions to bomb the server with stupid in any form. Like their video, mine was also open to discussion and opinion. Just sadly, that opinion was more of my weight and going to troll me vs. the actual content.

So a day or so passed and someone said I was in the Livestream. Still, I didn’t know who Towelliee was and his fame. It wasn’t until I did some surfing that I found his videos and stream and watched everything in relation to this. I sat and listened to Towelliees opinion about what he was feeling.

Now, people on Moon Guard know that I am very open person. I can accept the opinions of others so long as they are mildly informed. He mentioned that he is not to blame for the stupid that rolled in and spammed, that he cannot be the person people point the finger at. He also commented that for every 100-200 griefers, we benefit as a server because we gain 20-30 roleplayers.

When I listened to his words, I was still on the fence that it was his fault. I was very much against what he was doing. To say the least, I wanted to see him punished for what he was ‘encouraging’ others to do.

In a twist of event though, when I was out roleplaying in the Cathedral a massive wave of level 1′s and Mr. Towelliee dropped by and said hello. I groaned IRL because I was already getting nasty comments on my videos about my opinions and my annoyance was a little high. So, I jumped into the stream and listened. I listened as Towelliee whispered me on his character. At first, I want to say he was trying to screw with me to see if I would get mad or something.

Wouldn’t you? Someone and his fans that just attack your opinion on a Youtube video is suddenly in game at your feet. You expect the worse, at least I do because i know what people are capable of. However, I put on my nice face and talked to Towelliee and I have to admit something.

Talking to him was the best choice I ever made.

We had a casual conversation, he stayed nice and I did too. A couple days later, his fans and himself came back to Moon Guard and were really.. really lovely. I listened to the Livestream and I heard Towel tell his people not to act like dumb dumbs. He said warned them they would be banned.

For the next few days, he kept on saying it. Since my chat with Towel, I’ve grown to really like him as a person in the WoW community. I’ve grown to really like his fans too. They were really lovely and sent me some of the nicest whispers ever. The Livestream was very polite as well after Towel and I had a small chat.

I really felt like I needed to explain my story because if I don’t, I know people are not going to understand why I have a shift in emotions.

This is the time where I truly address my opinions. What do I think of Towel? I believe that he is a nice person. He has a humor that I can dig and I enjoy watching his vlogs and raiding streams. His videos have helped me broaden my view with our future trek into the Firelands and really, he is quite nice to talk to in game. I watched as he added his own fans to his Real ID to be engaging and run heroics with them, ect.

Do I think Towel is to blame for anything that has happened with the Livestream and Moon Guard raids? No. Gasp! In my video, I did blame him because I was ignorant to his warnings going out to people before, during and after their stays on Moon Guard. I was not aware he was making active attempts to tell people that if they act a fool, they will be punished.

And it’s because he warned them prior to this post, I gained a lot of respect for him. See, I believe that if you are a voice, a figure in any community really, you are going to be heard the loudest. Sadly, sometimes what you say or do will encourage others to have a chance to act like asses. When they act like such, it makes the voice or the figure look bad. This isn’t something that’s strictly gaming related, this is Real Life related too. Is it fair? No, but I hope Towel and friends can see why Moon Guard had the thread up like they did.

However, I respectfully disagree with his comment about the griefers and gaining roleplayers in from the sea of stupid. Yes, any addition we get on this server is one more person keeping the RP alive, but stupid can overpower and drive those away. So I personally would rather have 100 roleplayers and 20 griefers. If only in a perfect world, yea?

Do I hate Towel fans? No. I do not hate anyone for that matter and I actually was very impressed at his mature group of fans and friends that did not act as our usual spammers would. You could tell the difference in Towel followers to just randoms trying to get noticed in someone’s popular stream. There was a huge gap and that’s why I took a step back to really re-evaluate who I was truly upset at.

I learned that the problem didn’t lie with the fans. It was the sea of dumb that was outside of this group. The guys trying to show up and make someone else look like an ass because they wanted attention. That’s not really fair to blame someone for the actions of people he can’t control or won’t listen.

Is Goldshire a problem? Yes, it is. However, it was a problem long before Towelliee and his fans came to say hello. Long before anyone else was bringing Fel Guards to wipe out people and ect. Goldshire will be a thorn in Moon Guard’s side for as long as it thrives because it’s the price we pay for being a large server.

In closing because I have gotten wordy, Towelliee and fans, thank you for coming on to Moon Guard. Thank you for coming and being kind as you can be around others and listening to Towelliee when he said don’t act like fools. I prefer you guys have better names, but that’s just me.

A note to my love, Moon Guard. Remember, these people who come to gawk and laugh at our server only see one side of us. It’s the people that move beyond starting zone really get a grasp of the community. If we want to make a difference, doing our part and reporting names is great, but we need to act like a helping community.

You guys alone saw the power of the care packages we do, you saw the letters of thanks and being so happy. That’s what we need to show people. We need to make that statement, ‘Yes, we understand about Goldshire, but let me show you something special and unique about Moon Guard that’s going to change your mind’.

At the end of the day guys, people will judge Goldshire as it is but the way the community holds itself will forever make a statement that last far longer than anything negative about us.