Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsBreakfast Topic: Getting guildies to the website
by Mike Schramm 
Nov 7th 2009 at 8:00AM
Enter Ankie of WoW Ladies, with an intriguing idea to support the guild's website.
They have a little meta-game going, where every time you do something to contribute to the resource, you earn points, which are then redeemed for items from the guild bank. Put in a bio, get some points, redeem them for a guild bank enchant or a vanity pet. In essence, they're rewarding activity on the guild's site with little guild-related bonuses in the game, building a nice community in both places.
Obviously, that might not be feasible for all guilds, and certainly you can make your own tweaks (maybe you want to run a contest for one specific thing instead). But to those of you out there who've found a good way to build community in your guild (for the rest of us who have lots of resources that aren't getting used), what other ways have you found to connect your guildies outside the game?
Filed under: Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Guilds, Odds and ends, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Illirien Nov 7th 2009 11:05AM
There isn't anywhere in-game with enough text space to set down the guild policies or raid policies. It's important in a medium to large guild to have a few things written out so it's consistent and available. What do the ranks in your guild mean? How do you get promoted? What sort of behaviour can lead to a gkick? How are people selected for a raid, and what are the looting rules? Do alts get to raid? What things do I need to prepare before raid time?
People ask these questions, and the answers should be consistent, no matter who happens to be online at the time. The best way to take care of it is to have it written down where everyone can see it.
Foxfyr Nov 7th 2009 11:19AM
Our guild seeks out like minded people that we consider friends and as such our website traffic is very heavy.
We have a thread that was started by a member that no longer plays years ago. It is called Super Cool Stuff I Found and contains hundreds of links and photos that we all wanted to show to each other. The thread just passed one hundred pages and still gets replies from the original poster and several other members that no longer play.
I guess it all depends on how much of the social aspect of the game you want to play.
Victorious-Secret DOT org
Frank Nov 7th 2009 11:23AM
what a fantastic, timely topic. i've been discussing this very thing with other officers in our guild lately — apparently from the opening paragraphs, our guild is not the only one with this exact situation. i'm looking forward to seeing what other guilds do to encourage traffic.
also, to the person who says that guild sites are a relic of the past, i disagree. there's oftentimes not a lot of opportunity to discuss things at length in guild chat or on vent. a guild forum provides that. also, it's a handy way for people to interact with each other when they cannot log into the game or in to vent, like during the work day.
neminem Nov 7th 2009 11:43AM
We have a much simpler solution: when something important is being discussed on our forum (which, I'd say happens maybe 3-4 times a year), the poster also sets a guild note letting the rest of us know. I seem to be the only person who ever checks our forum otherwise (I'm just a forum junkie), but everyone reads the guild notes.
ConstantLvL Nov 7th 2009 12:49PM
Guild sites are great for a new guild that has to set up raid groups, officers, and other roles. It is much easier to post threads for people to sign up for these roles than trying to do all this in guild chat. This method also shows who really wants to a part of the guild and who is just there to be in a guild.
Omniverse Nov 7th 2009 1:07PM
We have about 50 members visit our site daily. Many of us enjoy the community aspect of chatting about things on the forums. They are great for many things. It gives a place other than in game where you can get to know and interact with your fellow guild mates.
We also have many resources and other things on our guild site, from an arcade to a picture gallery to ensure the site is entertaining and useful.
We use an application to join our guild, and one of the questions pertains to guild site use.
http://ksguild.org/
AeZ Nov 7th 2009 1:38PM
Our guild website is very active - in addition to raid signs, forums - including a getting to know you thread- our AFGs are posted here. We have recipes sections, a men's section, ladies, raid discussion - where we post our focuses of the week. We have strategies posted - an off night fiascos thread- so it stays pretty active. Our members are forewarned before joining that the site is active and the expectations are that you hit it once a day for any updates/strat changes/etc.
Nadia Nov 7th 2009 1:44PM
Our guild has a Facebook so we can all post screenshots.
lsschwartz Nov 7th 2009 2:46PM
Sign ups. You won't get invited to raid if you're not signed up. Rosters are posted prior to raid time so you know if you made the raid that particular day or not. People are always logging to the forums to check raid sign ups and DKP standings. Our gallery is well visited as well.
Lorekin Nov 7th 2009 4:41PM
My old guild did something similar to this and it was a fantastic idea and worked pretty well. We had one of the most active guild websites that I had ever seen.
People that were contributing in a useful way to the guild website had their name put into a hat, every two weeks a name was drawn and they got a BoE epic of their choice out of the bank vault to do with it what they please; sell it on AH, give it to an alt or hell, just destroying it. Officers didn't care- once you won it, it was yours to use or abuse.
Sadly, the system did result in some drama from players that thought using the guild website was stupid and useless. But the voice of opposition was very small, as in like 2 players. And officers dealt with them privately.
Overall I'm of the opinion that guild websites are VERY important. Not just for planning raids and laying out guild rules and expectations, but as a tool to get to know your guildies. In this day and age, so many people spend a great deal of their life online and socializing and making friends is a big part of human nature. Through discussions, bios and sharing photos on the website you get to know people better and make lasting relationships. (And personally I think raiding with friends makes the experience that much more enjoyable!)
Karezza Nov 8th 2009 2:20AM
Our forums ( www.evilutionguild.com ) get used by most members. There are a few memebrs that just dont get it, but these are the same people who can't install addons.
We find it useful for all kinds of things that you can't get done during a X hour raid window. After the raid is over everyone wants to log off not sit around and talk about things. We use the forums to let people discuss guild issues on their own time. This also lets the staff do some research if they are not sure about something before responding to it.
We are instituting a new reward system where we take the monthly MVP and post a screen shot of them along with some interesting information about them on our website. They are also given raid points in game that they can turn in for Guild Bank items. We are giving this feature a shot this month so see how it plays out but the website has an integral role in it.
In-game chat.. Ever tried to raid using ingame chat? slow / hard to understand people. Also other people have mentioned the fact that they want to chat to people out of groups / raids and this is a real reason why vent is so popular. I might be running a pug but I still want to chat with my guild members.
External Chat system.. AOC had (lol I really mean has but I guess that slipped out) a function like this where you download an external application to connect to their chat servers without loading the game. I have always thought that WOW should implement an IRC style connector for external applications. As a matter a fact I think it would be to blizzards benefit to offer several tools that people could use on their websites in the form of php / html code snippets.
Blizzard are you listening? We are waiting for an API.
Valt Nov 8th 2009 3:58AM
Simple, offer them cookies to join the dark si...er, guild website.
omg Nov 16th 2009 3:29PM
I tried to use a site to manage raids but after 6 months the pushback was too much; it was more important to raid than that ppl use the system. At about that time Blizzard fixed some of the issues with the in-game calendar and that has been working well for us. At the same time we do have a website http://www.RuneSnaps.com with a forumhttp://whitedryad1.proboards.com/index.cgi?
Our forum is used a lot by a handful of members and a little by many. I've seen some good ideas here to get ppl to participate more. We use our site and forums to educate members on our guild rules and policies. We also have a step by step (with pictures) guide to set up Ventrillo which members find useful. We use our forums to post rules and descriptions for ingame contests and events as well as to discuss policy changes, raiding, post boss kill shots ad other in game pics, introduce new members and discuss class info.
We have a large guild with about 450 members from around 300 accounts so the forums are a great way for new members to get noticed by officers. It's also where they can provide input regarding upcoming policy changes, to recommend others for promotion and to get information on their class. We just started a thread for members to post any patterns/recipes they have which are special and we started on on money making so no member should be poor. We have links to valuable gaming resources as well.
I think I will implement a change I read here to make ppl request items from the gb on the forums instead of sending me an ingame mail.
Several officers use an in-game macro to get ppl to go to the forums as well as to use the in-game calendar.
~Gorgonis
Midnight Fire, Aerie Peak, US