@Qot and Shastern:

Read the fourth and fifth paragraphs of the e-mail. The ones that came back "voicing concern," which is a polite way of saying they started whining over losing their till-then permanent raid spot because no-one was there to replace them. The guy who asked the question made no bones with diplomatic talk at the end of his e-mail when he mentioned "a lot of angry messages filled the guild chat channel."

I'm sorry, but I really am an advocate of having some extra people instead of not having enough and having to call off raids. I'm now just a member with no leadership responsibilities in a very stable and skilled raiding guild and I do end up being on standby on some nights, be it either progression nights when certain setups are better suited or on farm nights when I may not need some items and someone else does. But I don't raise any hoopla about it since I know I'm not the center of the universe.

Now if the guild in question doesn't have any sort of sign-up system in place and it's an ad-hoc inviting policy, then I can see the issues it can cause. But in that case, now would be the perfect time for the guild's leadership to put a sign-up system in place and adhere to it. Or if they aren't doing so already, it's the place of the guild's members to bring it up on their guild's forums in a constructive way. Don't just point out problems, give out constructive solutions. Don't just spew out "a lot of angry messages filled the guild chat channel," go post constructively on the guild's forums.