Grovin,

Excellent.

While we don't have an official rule, (though it IS a good idea) everyone knows my very strong stance AGAINST gold buying. God knows, I lecture and rant about it ad nauseum.

I think the community . . . whether within a guild or out in public . . . can do something, even if it's a little, to combat gold buying.

Gold buying encourages Gold Farming / Selling. And whether it's done through slave laborers "playing" (what an odd word when used to describe forced labor . . .) for hours making money for someone else, low-paid workers toiling in 21st century sweatshops, or through the use of Botting or Hacking/Phising, PURCHASED GOLD is ill-gotten. While the strongest argument is that it's against the rules, it goes even deeper than that in that it harms the WoW Community and as we see in the article, much much further than that. If you or a friend has ever been hacked, there is a good chance that someone BUYING gold has had a hand in making that happen. Gold sellers only do what they do because it's very lucrative.

We can discourage our friends and guild members from buying gold. While we can't control what goes on once we put items up in the AH, if you KNOW of a Gold Buyer, refuse his offers . . . and it'll probably be difficult since the offers will most likely be quite good. If they ask for favors for gold - having your guild run them through for hard content, running their alts through dungeons, farming for them, etc. just say no . . . "go do it yourself." They can still buy goodies from the AH of course, but as their gold becomes less valuable, maybe they'll think twice about the value of the real dollar they are spending. If you know of a guild with leadership that encourages or easily tolerates gold-buying (I don't know of any personally) discourage people from joining them.

Also, many new players may not know where the gold comes from. Educate them. If any express some plan to buy gold, tell them "That's a VERY bad idea." And explain all the reasons why.

I know that many in the community couldn't care less. More dps. More easy mounts. Sick of farming to make gold or for mats. Need for progression (and the expenses that go with it). Paying for run-throughs . . . it's all too tempting. But those thing are also part of the game. And there is no excuse for buying.

If the raid schedule of your guild takes up so much time in the week, provide a bit of breather so people can do a few dailies or a bit of farming or whatnot, so they can earn gold for flasks or whatever. Or if the guild can sell items (purples, maelstroms) and help with repair and flask costs, it might ease some of the temptation for the people with very little time to play or people near burnout from raiding. Encourage the gatherers in your guild to keep their professions (and yes I know . . . their bonuses won't add much to their dps . . . ) so they can help with mats for the guild.

If we can take steps . . .either with penalty or through positive enforcements, or just by letting people KNOW how gold is acquired, we may (at least I hope) decrease the amount of people who buy gold.