@Dave: For hardcore raiding guilds, if you're willing to have a member in your guild and let them raid, you let them roll on loot per your rules, whether you think they deserve it or not. This is what I think the original post was about, and my story is an example of a difficult situation where I think we did the right thing.

I was not trying to debate the merits of letting a fail dps actually join our raids, nor do you have to like the way my guild does things. I do realize hardcore competitive types might consider my guild radical or even impractical, but our model has worked for two years so that we've both retained a loyal player base AND experienced steady growth. We raid regularly and complete content (which is, I think, the point of raiding?), and this is solely due to our mix of hardcore regular raiders and casual fillers, and our equal respect of both.

To tell a nice woman in a guild that isn't a hardcore raid guild that she can't raid might be "practical," but it's cruel, demeaning, and disrespectful. In a normal raid guild, I trust that she would have been denied a guild membership after her first trial run, so I won't worry that you guys will ever have the problem we had.

@Zandrae: I agree about teaching. Our guild is all about helping people improve and retaining members through friendship and guidance (often real life friends), but sometimes ... you come across someone you can't teach. And it's beyond comprehension. You try and try and try and you just can't. The lady in question was a middle-aged math teacher and several people gave her new rotations and gear lists and suggestions, but she just couldn't get her dps up. /shrug She was a great social asset and everyone liked her as a person, and our raiding is anti-cutthroat, so it was just a weird position to be in.

She did eventually leave. I wish her well.