I've always enjoyed scanning the Guild Search Window listings, usually not so much for a guild to join (since when I've wanted to be guilded, I've usually been in one, and when not... not) but to read the recruiting posts, which can often be very.... er, interesting.
Here are some of examples of how NOT to recruit players to your guild, whether new or long-lived. All this are derived from actual posts I have seen; any names have been changed to protect the perpetrators. :)
Quote:
Guild of Glory, Gods and Guts is a new giuld me and my friend have put together for grouping, hanging out, progression, raiding and we want to be eventually the best raiding guild on the server. Raiding is optional. No trolls or drama. Only requirment is to have fun! If interested send a tell to any member. Websight coming soon at www.someforumsomwhere/gamingguilds/guildnumber=726b161a902K776227k. Be sure to visit when we're up! lol
What's wrong with this post?
Misspellings make the guild look amateurish. Often when they specify classes they need, they list rouges. That always drives ME nuts!
"Only requirement is to have fun." I see this a lot. Umm... it's a game. Of course players should have fun. But you really want to make it a REQUIREMENT? Like you going to punish members who aren't having enough fun?
"Optional raiding"---and you're going to be the best raiding guild on the server? High hopes but not bloody likely. The best raiding guilds almost invariably have some raiding requirements: at minimum: if you're on-line you have to raid. Most players looking for a guild who are interested in raiding are going to know this. They probably wouldn't join a startup guild if they have immediate raiding aspirations but even if they would consider getting in on the ground floor this kinda pap tells them you're going nowhere fast when it comes to serious raiding.
No guild wants trolls or drama. You ever see a guild recruit specifically FOR trolls... other than the race? Worthless verbiage. No troll or drama queen ever thinks they are so does anyone think they'll be discouraged by such warnings?
Name is too long. Hard to do a /who to find members. I always prefer single-word guild names myself. I am often astounded by how BAD some guild names are.
Send a tell to "any member".... weak! Does every member really know HOW to recruit? Maybe better to list the recruitment officers to demonstrate at least that much organization. But if you do that make sure at least one is often on-line. It's horrible when a recruit tries to /tell a listed member and they're never online. Says a lot about the dedication of the guild, too. When I was recruitment officer for a raiding guild I always tried to post a list of knowledgeable members with varying non-raiding playtimes so with luck at least one was always available. Ironically, one time I was indeed interested in joining a particular guild. I sent a tell to a random member (as the guild's recruitment hype said to do) one time and turns out that player was REALLY disgruntled, was planning to quit and form his own guild, along with some other members, and he tried to recruit me for THAT guild! So maybe a guild in need of recruits might want to control WHO talks with prospects, eh?!
It's a real PLUS to have a website presence but here is a whole new set of potential problems. Don't advertise a site that isn't up and running and if so, make sure it's presentable. Make sure it works and has welcoming text, info about the guild and a short but effective list of rules and goals. A relatively simple url address helps a lot. There are various services which help set up a guild website fairly painlessly and cheaply and I'd go with one that makes referencing the guild home page as easy as possible. Forums are nice but only if they have content and it's current. Nothing's more discouraging to recruits to see that the last post was 3 months ago and the guild's home page has not been updated since the expansion before last. Kiss of death!
"lol", at the end. Gak! I see this from time to time and it's the worst. To me, lol is the text equivalent of nervous laughter and demonstrates lack of self-confidence. The only even slightly useful purpose for this acronym is that it can serve is to lessen the impact of a comment in chat which might otherwise be considered offensive. Surely a recruitment post should not include this grossly over-used Internet chat shorthand. It says---to me: see everything we wrote before this? Just kidding!
Oh, mentioning preferred timezones, if relevant, is always a good idea. When I was raiding heavily nothing drove my guild more crazy than players who arrived late to raids or had to leave early because of time zone problems. We were considering splitting the raid force into two different forces based on time zones, right before we imploded.
Anyone else have any guild recruitment horror stories?
Edited, Feb 4th 2016 1:05pm by Sippin
Edited, Feb 4th 2016 3:09pm by Sippin