Need input - what to do with your guild's gold?

[Crystal Snow Faerie]

I am totally with having the gold donated to the guild being disabled. We do not need any more subforums and the gold keeps growing. It is not fair to the members who donate that do not realize we can not use it towards contest and the prizes.

As for paying the crew. Our donations only go for prizes since we have lots of contest. I do not have the gold to pay the crew and who would want to donate gold to pay the crew.

[roseankitty]

Alrighty now... I have to confess that I only got through the first page before I got tired of the repetition.

I am The Owner and Captian of Talk Random, I am crew to Everything, and member to several other guilds.

I have to say that I love the guilds, they are a great idea. But I must also say that I agree with some of the posters on their ideas.

One idea I don't agree on is the payment of crew members. I don't think that one should be payed to help out with a guild they chose to join. If ya want to help out, that will be great, promotion to crew member! But for those guilds that don't get great amounts of money, or don't have many members to begin with, will drive them down. Ending some of the best guilds there are! Bigger guilds are not always the best!

But on a postitive note, with the facts given by others, I must say that access Just by the captian would be a great idea! But to help out with it, here are my ideas {now they might of already been stated, but i couldn't get through them, I should be doing homework xd } :

1: Let the captian give out guild prizes for contests!
2: Don't include the money as the ranking of the guild {Already listed}
3: Let the captian buy items in the guilds name! maybe have a second password for their account that will let the money come out of the guild!
4: Another idea is to have the option of having a guild account managed buy the captian, and have all donation be sent there right away {meaning when they send in the donation, it will be sent to that account!} with this idea, have a page in which all members can see when something is done on that account. That way the guilds captian can not spend the gold of the donators on themselfs!
5: The purchase of an atomatic reminder to those members that have yet to post, or to those who haven't posted in x amount of days/weeks/months. Just like a genaric message set by the gaia superiors, but with a small fee can be costamized by the captian!

But those are my ideas right now... need to work on some homework, and eat some foooood.


Later!

Rose (kitty)

>.>

I eats randomness in the form of your waffles!!! HAHAHAHAHA!

[chrissy_of_hailfire]

Nick DMC

1. To buy territory in Zomg! for your guild base.

i like that idea. would be nice to have, maybe a door inside the inn going to the clan's room. or maybe implmented in chapter 2?

SuperChunkyMonkey

New Guild Owner.

Would be nice if we could buy server space to host images, or whatever for the guild.
Having Guild Based arenas as well as forums would also be good

Its a pain to have to use photobucket or another service to host images.

that is something that you're just going to live with, haveing images hosted by gaia would slow down gaia and use up their server space. and photoshop isent that hard to deal with.

wesden_girl

thanks for the replies. everyone!

Here is what I've seen as common threads (more than 2 mentions), so far:
- Mass PM fee
- Prizes for guild contests
- Guilds Halls/meeting spaces
- wages
- custom page design/colors (guild shop)
- extra ranks for different permissions/activities

am I missing anything? smile

i think you pretty much sumed it up wesden 3nodding

but the things in bold are the things we desprately need

[Ravenloue]

Captain/Vice/Crew - too many guilds XD

I say make it a bank that only the Captain can access, but let it keep a publicly viewable receipt of transactions (with a requirement of reason for withdrawl.) So people know where their gold is going to.

[IC510]

[I'm a Captain, V.Captain and Member.]

I am not sure if using Guild Gold would be a good idea. I'm really concerned for Gaia's economy right now, and if they release millions of gold back into the system, then inflation might get much, much worse.

On the other hand, paying for Mass PMs by using Gold from the Guild Account would be a good idea.

[Vyudali]

Captain

Well, if we could use it to not only buy extra forums, but use it for guild contests. My Crew and Members are wanting something like that. Like, to be able to donate some gold for forums, and some gold to Contests. Sort of like a Separation of Donations thing. But it should be that only the Captain can access it. Also that you can be able to Donate items for Prizes in Contests.
But to keep all the donation amounts public. And maybe be able to give the members a receipt thing to let them know they donated. To prove they did.

Being able to buy Special Zomg!, Rally, or Towns territory to chat with fellow members. Threads are ok but i think its a little fun to chase someone around when you play tag XD.

Mass PM's

Extra ranks. Extra positions for certain individual forums. Like the RP forum could be a certain Moderators responsibility or something.
Thats all i can think of at the moment.

[JesseBadesha]

PRIZES!!!!! that would be great, set up guild contests!

[Cloud Varis]

Captain of Calsisale, as well as an older (now defunct) guild, vice captain/crew in multiple others, and member of quite a few.

I like the idea of a guild hall most. I also rather like an idea I've seen floating around: A store to spend guild gold at as a mass purchase for members.
This isn't to say that a guild would buy 243 copies of one shirt so every member had one, but rather, if a guild owned an item in this special guild store, so would every member.

[edamomme]

wesden girl said --

- Mass PM fee
- Prizes for guild contests
- Guilds Halls/meeting spaces
- wages
- custom page design/colors (guild shop)
- extra ranks for different permissions/activities

am I missing anything? T
___________________________



edamomme - OWNER, CAPTAIN, former CO-CAP, CREW and MEMBER

I have been on Gaia for only a year and a half. In that time I have helped found a few guilds, joined many - and have seen firsthand some of the problems that can happen.

I think this has been mentioned, but keeping track of guild funds is a touchy issue. A scrupulous cap can choose to post every donation, and keep a balance sheet - but it's already so much work running a guild, why add to it? A visible donation in/out log -- or any solution that promotes transparency would be easier than managing a separate mule account. One mule owner was very sick for months and was off Gaia crying Ideally a cap & crew are trustworthy, but this system would create more accountability & could save heartache.


I think all the above suggestions have merit, except to say I would choose to opt out of being paid for guild chores, but not because these jobs don't have value. Could it be a choice? I'm not in this for the gold.
Maybe add an option that my crew wages could be donated back to the guild? It's a way to honor the work, and like parenting, I think only a few members really appreciate the labor that goes into running a guild. It also reminds me of the nickel they give me at the grocery store for bringing my own shopping bag, I really don't do it for the nickel, but now they can see how many people bring one, right?



But I think a bigger question to ask when making these decisions is "what is the goal - what kind of activity is it you're trying to promote?"

Do you want, or is it even possible, to create some incentive for Gaians to be more active not only within their guilds, but between their guilds, and the main forums also?

There are so many guilds on Gaia, they're relatively cheap to create. I have heard some guild members have said they're afraid to move out into the greater Gaian community. Yet most of the guilds I'm in are sluggish at best, some are almost defunct.

I've been hosting MultiGuild events, where 13 guilds participate together. I've found there's a lot of overlapping membership among our guilds. There's a nice feeling that comes from moving out into the larger stage of Gaia, people are liking it.

Just a thought - what if there was a way to blend guilds together, or create affiliations? Or a way to measure the activity level of a guild or group of guilds in the Gaia community, and possibly reward it? This could help the increasing fractionalizing that happens as more and more guilds are added.

Thanks for this thread, it'll be great to see the donation problem fixed.

[littleshake]

Littleshake: Owner of The Adult Comedy Club

Mass PM's PLEASE!! It would be soooo much help. Other than that, more customization and guild halls or being able to purchase guild real estate in towns just for guild members are great ideas. I also love the idea of being able to have badges or something for guild members to wear.

I also second Edamomme's idea of transparent funds.

[Real Magick]

Guild Captain and Member ...

Personally, I am TOTALLY AGAINST anyone being able to withdraw money from the treasury as pure gold for any reason, only because it would be so easy to misuse that feature.

I think a specialized Guild NPC, as has also been mentioned, would be fantastic. That way, everything could be linked to it. It would be like the standard Guild Mule (like this one I'm using), but the "gold" it earns or items it posseses (beyond that which it is wearing), can only be used for Guild purposes.

Any Guild features, such as subforums, layouts, specialized titles, etc., would be bought using the NPC, and the "gold" would thus come from its account.

With the NPC, a Guild Credit button could be added to each store, just as they all have Gaia Cash buttons. Then, when a Guild NPC goes to the store, the Guild Credit is the only option available, and since a Guild NPC can only be affiliated with one Guild, there would be no confusion as to which Guild that credit comes from.

Contests would have to be set up using the NPC as well, perhaps using a specialized form in which the summary, rules, dates, prizes, etc. would be entered. Or, perhaps it would just become an added feature to posts made by crew within a Guild. Check the box next to, "Is this a contest?" Choose a prize: Check the box next to, "_____ gold" (wherein you enter the amount), OR Check the box next to, "Item from inventory" (which would then bring up a pop-up of the NPC's inventory from which you can choose the prize). Of course, the NPC would have to be able to keep records of all of this, to ensure that everything is kept legit.

But this way, you could do everything you want to do, without anyone having to withdraw the money first.


Also as mentioned, GUILDHALLS. The initial hall should be free, of course, but any extensions would be purchased using the NPC. Also, a guild-specific shop could be created that features special guild-only furnishings and other items.

[willowgothika]

littleshake

Littleshake: Owner of The Adult Comedy Club

Mass PM's PLEASE!! It would be soooo much help. Other than that, more customization and guild halls or being able to purchase guild real estate in towns just for guild members are great ideas. I also love the idea of being able to have badges or something for guild members to wear.

I also second Edamomme's idea of transparent funds.

Owner and captain of Gaian Adult Pagan Alliance.
I agree with Littleshake about mass PM's and a guild hall would be great.
Edamommes idea is one I'm with too.We have enough subforums and it would be great to be able to use the gold sitting in the guild account for prizes and things.

[MuyamiKasai]

owner, captian, crew and member in several guilds.... look on my profile some are there...if not ask me


As has been said several times, and NO im not reading every damned post, I ahve too much to do so im just going to add my 2 cents worth in...

1 mass PMs to ONLY guildies.... done by owner or have it set up where only certain crew/capts can do such things...(i noticed now theres a thingy where guild captains can click who sends bulitens...something like that would work here and in other places as well....)

2 somethign i wouldfind VERY helpfull... being able to assign only certain memebers as crew in certain subs... meaning say crew number 3 i want to moderate subforum b but in subforums a and c i dont want them with crew privlages....

3 a special account attached to teh guild where things can be bought for the guild... non transferable account that is- when the guild changes owner so does the account...

4 guild halls (homes) are ok... but they really need to be attached to teh guild like idea number 2 i mentioned....

5 tanks for the fishies and cars ...yea sure why not theres gonna be a guild account anyways so why not...the guild changes owner so does the account...

6 ability to host pics....yea that works.... but it wouldnt be so bad using image hosting sites if when we edited and saved say for insance the home page- the damned things wouldnt glitch leaving spaces in the codes....

7 taking out gold for crew..... only if the guilds owners are getting paid from gaia.... otherwise its not needed... im in a guild that could afford it and several GOOD ones that its just not feesable to fund crew... but then again THIS IS FOR FUN.... so damn get over getting paid for being crew.... if you were a mod for the site thats a diff story ...but for a guild thats outlandish to me....

8 COLORS!!!!!!!...... can we have colors.... being able to change some of the looks from sub to sub would be realllly nice too....

9 have a button or option to show members siggys or not.... and possibly an option like in our account setting that allows for only certain types of things onna siggy...

thats all i can think of for now.... ive got things ta do and im already behind....lol

[LillianSaire]

Guild hall (Like for towns or zOMG) and decorations for it (like housing items, but untradable or something.)