|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2006 11:30 pm
The content of this guide is based on experience in rating guilds and finding that the same few problems continually appeared, eliciting the same few pieces of advice from me in the evaluations. You notice when you being to repeat yourself.
I recommend you come here before requesting a guild rate. Think of it as preparation, because following the best practices outlined in this guide will, firstly raise your final rating and, secondly, allow me to focus your rate on more individual issues in how your guild works instead of throwing you the same advice I've thrown to others before.
This guide is a continual work-in-progress. New recurring problems in rates, and the best solutions to them, will be posted here.
 Quick tips outline important best practices in a particular area.
Instead of this, try this: These provide examples of common mistakes and misconceptions that lead to problems whose causes are often unknown by captains who experience them, and the best practices that will help prevent those problems in the future.
Case Studies offer insights into other guilds that have experienced problems as a result of an error in the respective areas being discussed. They also offer the solutions that these captains should implement. If you experience a similar situation in your guild, this is excellent advice for you to follow.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 12:00 am
Types of guilds Community guilds are guilds based on, targeted at or are themselves a community. Most GGN guilds are a form of community guild.
Static resource guilds are forums used for distributing information, or for acting as a standing resource to Gaians. Price guides are examples of static resource guilds. Often these two categories overlap, where communities create resources that are relevant to (and used by) people outside the guild, and where static resource guilds develop into active communities due to the inability of their managers to avoid socialising forever. Guilds such as the GGN Captains' Guild are combinations of the two. You could call them active resource guilds or community resource guilds, or you could call them nanotokupheimedaulae, if you want. Up to you.
Questions:How should I title my guild?
What should go on my front page?
What stickies should I make?
How should announcements and stickies be used?
How would subforums help my guild? TitleYour aim with the title is to provide an effective introduction to your guild, while combining both flair of originality and fun to engage the attention of prospective members, with a few good keywords that are descriptive of the guild and will get you more members from searches in the GGN Registry.
Combining these two things is not easy, since they are almost contradictions. But not quite.
With originality, remember that your guild is unique. Even a guild on a common theme has at least one small thing that distinguishes it. Condense that one thing that makes your community not just great, but unique, into a single word or phrase.
With keywords, remember who your target audience is, and then imagine what they are likely to search for in the GGN Registry. If you have a guild on Harry Potter, and your target audience is the general Harry Potter fan base, then you can expect them to search for terms such as "harry potter," "hogwarts" and "harry potter guild." Try to include them in your title. Remember also that the search engine works in a way that will not let your guild show up if someone searches for "harry potter guild" and your title is "Harry Potter Fan Club" or "Harry Potter's Guild." Similarly, if someone searches for "poll guild" and your title is "Polls."
Front pageMinimise the content of your home page. More content makes the page more complex. You don't want to make the reader's job harder. Your home page is the very last place a potential member comes - after arriving from the GGN Registry, someone's signature, an ad in the Guilds forum, an invitation sent, or somewhere else - and is at the final stage of deciding whether to join or not. It is the single most important place to make a good impression. Users will decide to request to join or to leave at this spot, so making the experience a good, inviting, effective one is never more crucial.
Instead of this: Signal that the page is incomplete, or that more information or graphics are coming, with a "More soon" or "Graphics under construction" message.
Try this: Leave that content out until it has arrived, and don't fill the page with placeholders or a message that more is coming. Readers are only interested in what is there at the moment. Spend your time on getting the content that hasn't arrived yet up onto the page.
Use a banner to introduce your guild's title. A good banner is not too tall, because it can easily take up too much screen space, and the information beneath is then more often ignored by potential members. You don't need something unbelievably huge, flashing and aggressive to attract your viewers' attention.
"What is the purpose of the guild?"
"What is inside?"
"What are the benefits of joining?"
More information isn't necessary. Present only the information the reader is interested in. Be as clear, simple and direct as possible so that it is accessible. It has to be easy - almost effortless - to read, or else it won't get read. Small fonts (size 9 and below), changing colours every sentence and too much text are all aggressive and intimidating to the reader.
Instead of this: Outline your guild rules on your home page so that everyone will read them before sending a join request and they know what is expected once they are inside.
Try this: Leave rules to a sticky in the main forum. Placing them on the main page adds unnecessary content, it's too intimidating and they will not get the attention they need. Most readers won't be bothered with it. Those that would will still be diligent enough to read them if they are in a sticky.
While the purpose of outlining the rules on the home page is clearly to make members more likely to know and follow them, it still intimidates readers by the sheer volume of what they need to sit through. Rules are more conventionally found inside the guild in a sticky labelled "Rules" or in one of the posts in a "Welcome to..." sticky.
Some colour on the page is also effective, in moderation. Use colour to create a stronger guild identity to help you stick in the minds of people that see you. Pick one or two colours that you want to be associated with your guild, and use them to create a theme.
Banners act as a good visual aid and representation of identity. They are usually best aligned centrally and positioned at the top.
Short sentences and bullet lists are your friend. Never mind the fact the user could click on Guild Forum and go inside - it is far better to get a fast summary of why someone would want to join right out there where it hits a potential member instantly and is most easily accessible. What discussion topics are there? What information and resources are available? What are its purpose and goals? What makes your guild stand out? Get these things across in a simple, fast way, such as with bullet lists. This way a person can effortlessly scan over the page and feel the want to join up.
 Outline the great things about your guild. Don't talk it up by declaring you are the best thing to ever happen in the GGN and you rule all, but don't shy from your good qualities. Tell people exactly what it is you do. Your guild neither "Rulez da WORLD!!" nor "is for people who want to talk a bit about some movies." Talk positively and confidently. Your home page is your first meeting with a potential new member. It is the best chance you're going to get anywhere to draw people in, so it's important that you outline as many of the great things inside your guild as possible.
Case Study: Wicca - With Love Of The Lord And Lady!
The content that is currently available on the home page is not enough to draw a potential new member in. Your guild is dedicated to more than just "clearing up misunderstandings" - it is a place for all kinds of people with all kinds of different experiences and circumstances to come together and discuss Wicca in a friendly, informative and exciting environment.
What is the purpose of your guild? What do you aim to do? What kind of people are you after? What are the benefits of joining? What are some of the things you can do in the guild? These are the fundamental questions on the mind of the average person who visits your home page and is deciding whether they should join or not.
Case Study: The 3 Kings
At the moment, a person with those questions simply arrives and is hit with a picture of a dragon and a long, potentially intimidating narrative of that outlines a prelude to entering. They just want to get the information. Use short bullet lists to get these simple answers across quickly, and then you can waste all the space you want on a narrative. But if the narrative is all you've got, people aren't going to sit there and read through it in the hope that some useful information will crop up.
The graphic is a good supplement to the narrative, but dominates half the page. It is actually more natural for the viewer to see the graphic, then scroll down past it and read the text afterwards. It is unlikely the average viewer will have both the graphic and the narrative onscreen at the same time. You can improve this by reducing the size of the graphic and using either the [IMGleft ] or [IMGright ] tag instead so that it can be displayed alongside the text. Reduce the size of the text, too, from the default 12 down to 11, so that more of it can be displayed in one screen view while alongside the graphic.
The front page needs identity. If you have a guild colour scheme, use it. Clearly state the guild's title, along the top and aligned centrally, in large, bold type in the right colours. You could even design a logo of some sort to give something for people to remember you by. Colour schemes stick in people's minds, and that means your guild can stick in someone's mind, and make a stronger impact on them.
A logo would help - even if it is just a certain font (or even colour) you always use to write the guild's name. A strong recurring colour scheme is a surprisingly powerful way to give viewers an idea of the nature of your guild, and to help them remember it.
Case Study: In the end there will always be..... Love
The home page is cluttered with too much information. Nobody wants to sit there like a good boy or girl and scroll through several screens' worth of rules and regulations before daring to apply for entrance. The result is that the average potential member will either join without reading it, or not join at all. The aim of the front page is to introduce a newcomer to your guild. Tell them what your guild's purpose and aims are, who should join and what's inside. Those are the things on a visitor's mind when they view the home page and are considering joining. Bombarding them with rules to follow before they even request to join is a bit rough. Rules go on the inside. The other thing a home page needs is a banner that represents your guild. People respond to graphics. Graphics are nice. Use a graphic. Build on your guild identity - draw out your theme.
AnnouncementsAnnouncements are NOT intended as permanent topics, contrary to popular belief. When you announce something, you are posting new information that is especially relevant at that time. Permanent information and topics should be posted as stickies. Announcements are placed above stickies because they often require special attention, and should be read before anything beneath them is looked at. Announcements that permanently appear at the top of a forum spoil clarity in the forum, forcing members to distinguish between three kinds of topics instead of two, and also will make members less likely to notice if a new announcement (perhaps this time an important one) is posted. Remember to delete announcements after their information has had time to reach everyone. Alternatively, convert an announcement to a sticky if it initially described a new feature, and now still have information needed for that feature even though the feature is no longer new.
"Welcome to the guild!" stickies should NOT be posted as announcements. ONLY use a welcome thread at all if it contains genuinely important information that does not go under the category of an existing sticky (such as "Rules" or "Introductions").
StickiesWhen most (respectful) members join a guild, they often look to stickies as their first port of call for any information they feel they should know before posting. Stickies are intended for distributing information, administrating the guild and for certain topics that need to remain at the top of the forum for some special reason. Rules and guidelines, guild directories, introductions, birthdays, FAQs, advertising graphics, suggestions and feedback, diplomacy lists and topics with special relevance to the guild (e.g. "Guild Exchange" in the Captains' Guild and RP or OoC areas for roleplaying guilds) are all excellent uses for stickies.
Too many stickies at the top of a forum create discontinuity in the forum. The page is far less streamlined when a full screen view is taken up by stickies - some members may not even realise that there are normal discussion threads underneath all those notices.
Instead of this: Post lots of stickies in an RP guild designated to different roleplaying areas
Try this: Dedicate one subforum to roleplaying areas. Make a rule that nobody can post new topics in that subforum. Post your RP areas in there as normal threads. Why do you want the word "Sticky" in front of your thread titles, anyway?
Title your stickies better.
A lot of captains aren't doing a good enough job to make stickies look like they are worth reading. This is bad since stickies are there because they need to be read! Here are the mistakes.
Instead of this: Add "READ ME!" or "IMPORTANT!" onto the end or at the front of a title to attract members' attention.
Try this: Make your titles simple. All stickies are there because their information is important and they need to be read. Adding more text into the title only serves to make it look messier, and it actually makes members less likely to take notice of the other stickies.
Instead of this: Take one or two keywords from the first post, or the stickies main message, and use them for the title - e.g. "Contest" or "New Feature."
Try this: Give more information, or include a call to action. Remember that your members don't actually know the content of the message before they read it! E.g. "Win Gold by Recruiting," "Contest for Guild Banner" or "Announcing Subforums for Mini Shops and Auctions."
SubforumsGuilds with two or three or four or five subforums sell for much larger amounts of gold than guilds without any subforums. However, more than six subforums in a guild start to decrease its value. Why is this?
 Remember that posting needs to be easy for members. A hell of a lot of research by Gaia staff has gone into designing dead simple layouts that make the posting experience in Gaia easy. The Gaia Forums are laid out in a way that is easy to follow and logically organised, without overwhelming choice that confuses, wastes time and is unnecessary. "Sub-subforums," while a popular and widely-sought idea, are not a reality yet, but that is not an excuse to go all-out and buy ten subforums. If your guild has ten roleplaying areas, allocating them all into a single forum, or distribute them to a couple of subforums based on some category system ("Castle," "Field," "Forest," "Dojo," etc.)
Subforums are designed to help you organise the forum. Separating groups of topics that are all merged together in a forum is a great way to make posting easier and clearer for members. But don't create subforums for the sake of it, hiding your most popular topics another click away. This goes a surprisingly long way to deter members from posting there and effectively destroying your guild's streamline. Keep the most common topics in the main forum, and use subforums for sub-categorised topics - i.e. topics that should receive attention after the most popular ones. Keep the favourites in the main forum.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 12:30 am
Questions:How can I advertise/recruit? Where?
Where can I go to get original graphics designed for my own guild?
What can't I do to advertise? Advertising a Community GuildPossibly the best place to gain great exposure for your guild is to set up a thread in the Registered Guilds Forum. Set the thread up well, writing literately, using graphics supplementarily, remembering to include a link to your home page and making sure any trademark characteristics of your guild are glaringly obvious - because that's what's going to make it stand out to prospective members. Gaians wander through this forum all the time, and if they happen to stop by your thread they need to see from the outset exactly the kind of atmosphere your guild has. The better you convey that atmosphere, the more likely someone who likes it is to request to join.
Once the thread is set up, make an announcement in your GGN guild's forum, asking members to spend some time in that thread as well as in the actual guild. Post there yourself, so that anyone lurking in the forum and thinking of joining will see that your guild is active.
Captains and vice captains can also set up an ad in the GGN Captains' Guild. In a fresh topic, write about the appealing aspects of your guild, remember to provide a link and prefix the title with [AD].
You are allowed to send invitations (Moderator Panel > Crew Controls > Invite users to this guild) to Gaia users. However, you must be very polite and avoid writing anything that might pressure the invitee - especially if you have not met this person before. Target the invitation to someone you are 100% sure has an interest in your guild's theme, and therefore would likely be interested in joining. Provide a clear, simple explanation in the invitation of where you saw their username and why you think your guild would interest them. State that you are not pressuring them to join, but hope to see them in your community because both your community and the person could benefit and have a good time.
Abusing the invitation or PM system by sending unsolicited advertisements to Gaia users is a serious violation of the Terms of Service and will put both you and your guild at risk. Don't do it. Send messages on an individual basis to targeted users you genuinely believe will be interested in joining your guild.
Advertising graphics in your signature are another way to raise exposure of your guild, and have the potential to draw in hundreds of fresh users provided your banner is effective and you post widely across Gaia. A good banner is not aggressive by flashing bright colours or taking up the full 500px x 500px size limit to use as much space as possible. Some of the most effective signatures use only small banners or none at all, because they stand out against the huge, aggressive, ugly ones used by most users.
While your banner should not be too competitive for attention, it should hold a strong element of dignity and professionalism in its design. Banners made with Microsoft Paint are generally very amateurish and will not attract attention as well as graphics built with a better application (some Gaians can use paint quite well, but it is simply not possible to do anything in Paint that cannot be done better with a higher-end application, such as Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Fireworks).
If you are not a skilled web graphics artist, no problem; you can visit the Personalised Graphics subforum (of the Mini Shops forum). Find a store that has work of the standard and for the price that suits you, and follow the rules set out by that mini shop owner to request a graphic. Many store owners are accommodating people who will respond if asked kindly to incorporate your specific ideas.
You are allowed to post a topic in the Captains' Guild requesting an artist for your project, too. However, it is not as useful as, firstly, you are posting in a forum where most readers are not interested anyway, and secondly because when you ask graphic designers to come to you, you do not always get the chance to see their standard of work first. Mini shops are easier to use and are the best way to find effective graphics to advertise your guild.
Advertising a Static Resource Guild Static guilds don't rely on the same level of exposure and advertising to be successful because they don't exist to grow bigger. They don't depend on members to be "active." A static resource guild therefore does not need invitations to be sent to potentially interested Gaia users or ads in forums to grow. However, it is often even more important that they get a very strong identity made with excellent-standard graphics. This makes the information contained in the guild look like it must be more reliable, and also makes you better remembered. It's good to put an ad in your signature, but make sure it is small in size but absolutely amazing in design. People will notice that, and your guild will rely on word-of-mouth recommendations rather than mass advertising to gain visitors. Don't worry if this sounds shaky to you - it works startlingly well. A logo will help you be remembered, too.
Static guilds rely on reputation and recommendations rather than numbers or mass publicising. Lucky DEVIL Price Guide is an example of a successful reputation-run resource guild with a strong identity and non-aggressive signature advertising that grabs attention by not competing too harshly.
More: Identities information in seventh post.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 1:00 am
Problems:I am not getting requests to join from anyone, and advertising isn't working
Members don't make any posts in the guild once they join
Members make only a couple of posts in the guild once they join, then aren't seen again Many captains are getting caught in a cycle of mass recruiting and advertising, getting no activity from all their new members, and so banning them, then finding they are short on members again so they go out mass recruiting and advertising again, getting no activity from all their new members... and so on. The problem they face is not in how they are recruiting and advertising, or even so much in who they are recruiting into the guild; in this situation, the captain needs to work on improving the content of the guild forum.
 Think of how many guilds are listed on your My Guilds list. You probably have quite a few, since you are a captain of one and you've only gained experience to get to that level by being in other guilds. Your members have other guilds besides yours on their My Guilds lists, too. Some may even captain more than one other guild themselves.
Activity obviously comes from members posting. When they are posting in your forum, it means they are not posting anywhere else. So think of all those other guilds that your members are a part of in addition to yours. What reasons are you giving them to post in your guild, instead of all those other ones? The other guilds are your competitors. You are competing to dominate the attentions of your members. When they log into Gaia, you want your guild to be the first thing on their minds - not some other guild.
So how do you compete for attention? Firstly, you need to stand out. People remember and respond to guilds that can organise events, contents, money games, word games, debates and practically anything else that sparks their interest. Engage with your audience by recognising where your members are coming from and target their interests with topics that they relate with and will be excited to respond to. For example, if your members are largely being recruited from a thread in the Guilds Forum, look to that thread to find out the comments people are making before they join and what they expect to find. If your guild's title has a really effective keyword that always makes it show up first and foremost in the GGN Registry after a search, then you can bet many members are coming to you from there, so you should revise your forum as whole; isolate the title and ask, "What would I expect from a guild with a title like that?" Check to make sure you are offering that. Think of new ways to offer it. Creativity and originality will draw electric responses.
Remember to offer what the members expect to find. Don't get so caught up in thinking of what you want the guild to be that you forget or neglect what the members want. Members will always want some level of general discussion, so try to find the balance between that and focussed topics on themes relevant to the guild. Don't allow bumps or irrelevant polls, but allow topics to wander a bit so that the atmosphere stays relaxed. New ideas come better in a relaxed environment, and your members will be able to explore the things you want them to deeper.
Problems:My guild's forum is too cluttered
Too many duplicate/repeat topics are being posted
Topics are dying too quickly If you're finding you're getting too many repeat/duplicate threads and that threads are dying, the following are the steps you should take. The problem is occurring because members aren't getting the right idea about when a topic is "dead." You need to lead them by posting in those threads even when they slip behind fifth from the top of the forum. Be involved as much as you want your members to be involved. Members respond to leadership by example - not rules.
A lot of captains don't fully appreciate how they are perceived and how that relates to what they post. Many restrict themselves to only posting information and replying to member-made topics.  While posting in the members' topics is the best way to make sure you stay in touch with your community and are a proper part of it, you need to take a leader's role in leading discussion and generating the interest that should exist in the theme you have chosen for your guild to explore. You need to engage your members, because in new guilds members prove over and over again that they are hopelessly inept at engaging themselves. Start the debates, divulge some of your experiences, explain your ideas and views, and give the members plenty of space to discuss what you post, too, and then to add to it in their own way. Get the members to interact better with each other - even if they have the potential to get involved in 5-post-per-minute kinds of exciting discussions and are enthusiastic about getting their views and ideas out into the open, they need to be guided into doing that. Often captains are leaving them to make threads and start discussions themselves. You need to lead them into discussions, start topics of debate and then stay with the members as they get into it. This is how you can improve activity levels. It is a common misconception that by recruiting more members you will gain more posts. Even when you have a full guild to work with and plenty of great people who seem keen to open up and get into the really exciting parts of your theme and to learn from each other by discussing and debating - all that wonderful stuff has nowhere to go if you don't push the GO button. Start ordinary threads yourself, but not too many as this will give the impression that members aren't allowed to make their own. Make only a couple.
You can support the activity level by simply not abandoning threads when you don't have an immediate response in mind to a particular last post or if a thread has just stopped because two people were conversing and one said "Good night, I'm going to bed now." Come on, there's something you can add! There is nothing wrong with chiming into members' conversations and adding your bit, even though you're the leader. You don't expect special treatment because you're the captain - you want to be treated just like one of your members. And the first step to that is posting just like one of your members. Start topics and post in topics. Chime in and be chimed in on. Continue a conversation that has suddenly stopped because someone left - and you'll find that members will automatically pick it up with you. Your goal is make them feel comfortable and at ease. Such an atmosphere makes posting more fun, and thus more rampant.
Guard your guild from becoming too much of a static resource - meaning that it has places to access the information, read it, and then leave. Discussion and interacting is where the guild gets its activity from, so don't post too many threads that members can't really do anything with.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 1:30 am
Questions:What initiatives can I do to engage my members better?
How can I collect feedback from my members to improve?
How can I control spam without making my members want to leave? InitiativesInitiatives are things you, as the captain, vice captain or as part of the Crew, organise and co-ordinate to take your guild a step further than ordinary.  Standard and common yet effective initiatives are debates, contests, roleplays and money games. Larger scale things can be organised. Two or more guilds can co-operate to organise and host an event that celebrates a holiday, much like a Gaia event. Newsletters are a great way to record times, as well as open up doors to even more initiatives such as comics, new competitions, member-run columns, interviews, recurring articles and more.
The goal of good initiatives is to take things to a higher level, and that is done by doing things that haven't been done before. The standard of GGN guilds overall is improving steadily not only with upgrades to the technology by DARKNRGY and other Gaia Developers, but also with the ideas that are being generated in guilds. What we are capable of doing is ever more exciting. Think of new ways to interact with communities outside your guild, think of new ways to utilise the simple yet ingenious tool of creating then editing a post, think of new ways to bring new media into your guild. Think of things to do that get members to submit products of their own making, giving them the choice to earn something while competing in a medium they are comfortable with and good at. Think of multi-medium contests that could get members to submit anything at all, from poetry, artwork, narratives, Flash, web design, photos of a particularly amazing creation with LEGO, a record of a tightly-fought chess game or a video of a phenomenally close tennis match. Move out of everyday. Bring more to your guild and make it not just unique and cool, but a powerful and exciting place that your members look forward to visiting everyday.
Collecting FeedbackGuilds should always be focussed on improving, and there are always simple ways of finding out what changes the members would like to see. If your guild is a community, the opinion of the members is at least as important as your own, so pay careful attention when they actually bring something up. Take even the most casual or in-passing comments seriously. They are a hint to what the members are thinking to themselves. Explore the ideas that come up. When someone suggests a new subforum for something and you didn't plan on another one, you still need to find out just how many people agree that another one would be useful. If the idea gets support, you need to run with it, even if you personally don't want to.
Case Study: V.T.O.G. - Villains Taking Over Gaia
When subforums arrived in the GGN this guild bought four subforums straight away. "Guild Administration" was for Crew only, "General Discussion" was for what we did best, "Products & Services" was for mini shops, services, commissions and exchanges and "VTOG Stadium" was for planned events. The main forum had a stricter rule of no GD or spam enforced, and the main stickies for the guild (graphics, the newsletter, the mods' meeting room, etc.) went there as well.
The members disagreed with some of these arrangements. A subforum only for the Crew made non-Crew members feel they were being isolated from a part of the guild, when before they had been able to see everything and talk with everyone.
The movement of GD to a subforum was also unfavourable, since this is what kept the guild alive. Sure, it wasn't a totally on-theme balance, but there was no bumping or illiteracy that ever went on, and members could always be trusted to bring focussed discussion into GD anyway. The problem was that the guild became stricter in the main forum and pushed the relaxed atmosphere everyone knew the distance of one click away. This does a surprising amount to lower the level of participation in it, and with the main forum creating too much pressure to stay precisely on theme, this layout did not let the community work at its best.
Announcements were posted every step of the way as the subforums were implemented, and they were open to members to post their feedback. As it came in, it became clear that the members did not like the arrangement of all the oldie goldie GD topics tucked away behind a subforum while the main forum was now "not fun enough."
The captain agreed and fixed it. "Guild Administration" became Announcements, used much like the Gaia Announcements forum to keep the community up to date and also keep a record of things that happened. The main forum was switched with the GD subforum, with all topics being moved between them, and that subforum was renamed "VTOG Central," for all topics specifically on the running of the guild and the discussion of the community.
Managing SpamEspecially since the release of GGN 2, and the onset of the subforum craze that followed, a lot of guilds have made themselves more open to spam and unfocussed discussion. Some captains have accepted the idea that since you can make a subforum for general discussion, and another for polls and bumping, and another for general spam, that this is the best way to make your guild more organised. On the contrary, it is the start of a downward spiral that will divide your members and lose the focus of your guild.
If you had a guild dedicated to a particular theme before subforums support, remember how you controlled spam and other unwanted topics then. They were deleted from the main forum because that forum was needed to discuss your theme - you couldn't have spam there! Subforums are meant to help you organise the content of your forum, but that doesn't mean you can afford to add a couple more as special places for all the stuff you didn't want before! You didn't accept it before, so why accept it now? You still need 100% of your guild to stick to its theme, and if have five subforums they all need to be as focussed as your one original forum always was. Don't start accepting what was not tolerated before. Instead, use your subforums for exploring different sub-themes that still go under your guild's title. Didn't you ever think that your main forum had topics in it that were often on totally different wavelengths and raised totally different issues - even though they were still relevant to your guild's theme? Use subforums to organise those topics; not to start letting spam in.
Why is this dangerous? Presumably all your members joined your guild because they had some level of interest in your theme. Those who are relishing the opportunity to spam - why are they there? They can spam in the main Gaia forums, so why did they request to join a guild with a theme like yours when they just want to spam there instead?
As for those members that really did join because they wanted to discuss the theme, they will probably grow to be pretty pissed with the direction you are letting both the spam and the real discussion take. Antagonism can easily arise between the members who want to discuss the theme and learn from it and the members who aren't really interested in the theme anymore. Presumably you want the people interested in the theme to stay, so you need to keep the others under control and consistently active, and if they want to leave, hold the door open for them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 2:00 am
Questions:What is the Crew, exactly?
What can the Crew do? Why have one?
How should I choose my Crew?
How do you know when you need a Crew?
What qualities should I look for in a Crew member? The Crew is the body of members appointed by captains in a guild to assist in managing and maintaining the forum. The captain has a responsibility to ensure his or her guild is clean of any violations of the Gaia Terms of Service or GGN Rules & Guidelines. The Crew's first job is to help the leader in this. Secondly, the Crew can help the captain in other areas.
Crew members can edit and delete posts, delete topics and move topics between subforums.
There are a number of techniques captains use in choosing their Crew, and they vary depending on how long the captain has been captain, how old the guild is and what kind of help the captain seeks. A lot of captains place far too much stock in the promoting members to positions on the Crew (indeed, some are new to captaincy are simply too eager to use the newfound "Promote" button), however you need to assess the size of your guild properly, decide the amount of help you think you actually need and then decide how large a Crew you need, if you need one at all.
Being part of a Crew is a responsibility - not a privilege. Don't promote your friends or your most active members to it without decent reason and you're only doing yourself potential damage if you do. Besides, if your friend thinks you let them be on the Crew because you're friends, then surely it's not unreasonable for him or her to expect you to expect no work from them, because you're friends.
New guilds DON'T need a Crew!
Sometimes when a new captain first starts a guild, they look at who posts the most during the first week or so and decide they will be the best people suited to handling Crew responsibilities. Firstly, one week is nowhere near enough time to get to know someone well enough for a job that requires this amount of trust and dedication. Secondly, if you're promoting the only members that are showing interest now, what job will they have? Who will they be looking after? Only themselves! Remember that the Crew is there to help the captain if and when the captain needs it. A guild with more Crew than active members is severely unbalanced and not using the Crew status effectively.
Who SHOULD go on the Crew?Someone who is ACTIVE
Your Crew can help by being online at times you are away or asleep. You can't be omnipresent in your forum. You'd die. That's what the Crew is for.
Someone who is HONEST
No nepotism and no willingness to look the other way when someone does something wrong because you either don't want to say something bad to your friend, or because you'd feel embarrassed. Friends will understand that your guild is in danger of being shut down if a Gaia mod (any Gaia moderator can see guilds, even hidden ones) deems it is not capable of controlling violations of the ToS or R&G. If two members are at each other's throats, a good Crew member will not take sides but rather calmly identify the problem and clear it up, being reasonable, impartial, fair and polite the whole while.
Someone who is RESPONSIBLE
The Crew potentially have a lot to say about how your forum is maintained and how your guild is run. Remember that they can edit and delete anyone's post, including yours, just as you can. You need to trust your Crew members to take their job very seriously. In a worst case scenario, a badly-chosen Crew member could sign in five minutes before you log out and go to bed, and have the guild permanently deactivated by the time you wake up through badly handling a ToS or R&G violation. The job is serious, lots is always at stake, and Crew members need to appreciate that.
Someone who is PERSONABLE
Crew members should be just as easy to get on with as anyone else. They should not be stuck up or rude, obviously, but also should not decide upon being promoted that they aren't needed in the forum to socialise anymore, only to check that nothing needs to be edited, deleted, locked or moved. It's good for normal members to know Crew members well, so don't choose someone who is unfamiliar to the guild and/or who will be disconnected from the community upon being appointed to that post.
Someone YOU KNOW
Finding Crew members is NOT the first step in starting up a guild. A community with no normal members hardly needs a Crew to moderate it. Start your community small, let it grow on its own and when you think a Crew will help, choose one person at a time who you have known for an extended period of time (more than two or three months and more than half and hour), and who you can personally trust will possess all of the above qualities, and then some.
How do you know when you need a Crew?
A guild receiving upwards from 500 posts a day is usually around the size that a captain might have difficulty suppressing a Terms of Service violation or disagreement with members, should a situation like that arise. Think of your guild and decide the worst case scenario if a problem broke out and put some of your members at odds with others. Could you handle it easily yourself? Would you likely be online when it happened to quell it before it flared up? If no is the answer to either of those, and especially if a number of your members are online frequently at times you're sleeping, then a Crew would probably go a long way to making your job easier.
Problems:I just inherited a guild and don't know what to do with the existing Crew.
I want to test my Crew to see if they will be good at the job.
Someone has asked to be promoted to the Crew, but they're new and/or I don't know them well yet.
Someone has asked to be promoted to the Crew, and I know them well but don't know if they are ready for Crew responsibilities.
I think I need to hire assistance from someone outside the guild to help out in the Crew. Managing an Inherited Guild with its Crew If you inherit a guild that already has an established Crew that everyone knows well and who seem to do their job fairly well, there is no reason for you to demote them all (even "until they prove they earn it again"). Especially remember that members don't like someone who plays around with things like that when it's obvious you just want to try out your cool new captain tools. The first thing you should do as captain in an existing guild is to leave everything "as is." Don't buy five new subforums, don't ban anyone "I never liked," don't delete captain's old stickies just so you can post them under your name, don't edit the front page and don't demote all your Crew until they prove themselves to you personally. No matter what your standing opinion of the guild's state or the previous captain, you need to think about what you're doing first and plan all changes and new features you want to add with care and earnestness.
Over the first week or so you should not change anything. Observe the guild from your new viewpoint and make a list of things you think could be improved. During this time you should monitor the Crew very, very carefully. Take careful note of who is online and who posts, and watch the Crew activity log in the Moderator Panel under Crew Controls to see who is doing what (moving, locking and deleting topics; deleting posts; banning members). When your first week has let you get a good insight into how your Crew is helping the guild, you should have a good idea of who to leave in the position and who - if anyone - should be demoted.
Testing a CrewNew captains may want to "test" their Crew in a more active way, and a popular way of doing this is simply creating another secret account (a "mule" account), or using an existing one that nobody will know about, and using it in your guild under the guise of a regular new member. Observe how your Crew respond to such things as bullying, spamming, requests to be promoted, simple questions, a repeat thread, illiterate posting and anything else you feel you would like your ideal Crew to be confident in handling well. See who responds, how they respond and who doesn't respond. For any existing Crew member who does not respond as you would like, you should remember that they were still promoted to their position for a reason, and it would be better for you to explain how you'd prefer something done than to demote them straight away.
This method of "screening" can be useful also in identifying normal-ranked members who respond especially well to inappropriate posts or PMs, and considering them to become Crew members in the future, too.
Instead of this: Make a notice asking for members to nominate themselves for a Crew post or a certain task (e.g. "recycler," "banning mod").
Try this: Keep an eye out yourself for members who seem dedicated not just to being active, but also to being friendly and wanting the guild to be better. Don't announce when you're looking for new Crew members. It's a big enough job that the relaxed "let them come to me" approach is simply not effective enough.
Dealing with Crew RequestsSometimes you may be approached by new members - or even people who are not yet members of your guild, but are thinking of joining - who ask if they can become part of your Crew. Some people will try to persuade you into granting them a Crew position by outlining their credible experience with managing other guilds, with the longevity of their time on Gaia or their miraculous familiarity with everything your guild is trying to do ("but could do far better with my help").
Whether the claims these people make are true or not is irrelevant. The golden rule of building your Crew is that you know, respect and trust every person on it to always help you as best they can and to respect and trust you in return. There is no way you can possibly know, respect and trust someone whom you have not met, no matter how supernaturally experienced and insanely otherwise perfect for the position they are. Ignore their CV, ignore their nagging and ignore their promises. Remember that being on the Crew is a responsibility and not a privilege. If they want to help your guild so badly, they should be welcome to! But they can help as a normal member for as long as you deem necessary - there are plenty of things a normal member can do just as well as Crew member. Do not allow yourself to be pressured. Take no notice of anyone who says "I will not join your guild if you don't make me a Crew member." Ignore any boasting or sheer arrogance from people who really think they are exactly what you've been hoping for. They're not. They have the problem, not you.
If you're approached with a Crew request by someone whom you know well and has been in the guild a while, what you do next is up to you. Your decision to promote them or not to should be based on whether (or not) you trust their judgement, you trust them to be responsible and honest, they respect your decisions, they are kind and friendly with present members and welcoming to new ones, they are active in posting and they are honest and fair when it comes to opinions and disagreements.
Outside AssistanceThinking of hiring outside assistance to help you Crew your guild while you get your bearings about being a captain and how to manage and maintain a guild? There are services offered by experienced captains who are more than willing to help you out for a fee, and some of these are listed in the Affiliated Services topic in the forum (if you are viewing this thread from the Guild Services guild). But before you offer your gold to someone else, think twice about whether or not you need help. There is a way to work it out on your own in almost every situation, and only if you're seriously snowed under with eruptions of system abuse and fights between members should you consider parting with your gold to get outside help. Following is a list of situations that should not require outside assistance, along with explanations of the best ways to establish a strong Crew under those circumstances.If you have just set up your first guild, or if your guild is very new
You don't need Crew because you don't have many members! The very job of the Crew comes from the presence of members in the guild. Remember; do not give Crew responsibilities to new members, no matter how helpful they were in setting the guild up with you. You can slowly build up a community that starts off small. You don't need a Crew yet, and it's easy to know everyone personally at this early stage. When you start growing larger (receiving upwards from 500 posts every day) you can use your knowledge of who has the guild's best interests at heart and who is suited to the Crew's role.
If you have just inherited a guild from someone and are unfamiliar with how to captain it
You should leave the Crew "as is" for at least one week while, firstly, you get the feel for captaincy and how the guild has been running and, secondly, you get the feel for what kind of a job the present Crew is doing. If you observe over that first week that the Crew is not doing the standard of job you want them to, you should try to work with them to explain how you want them to help you - remember they were promoted by the previous captain for a reason, so you don't want to risk wasting their potential. If after trying you seriously and honestly do not think you will get from some of those Crew members the help you are after, you should look to the members already in the guild and observe how they relate with each other. Any member who you know well, posts often, is friendly with older members and welcoming to new ones and who you trust to be responsible and honest - would be a good choice for promotion.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 2:30 am
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 3:00 am
Addressed here:Overview of subforums in guilds
Good titles
The main forum
Subjects for subforums
Summary: "Ten Commandments"
Guild directory
Special practices for RP guilds OverviewThe GGN has supported subforums since Sunday 16 October 2005. They cost 2,500 gold, which is drawn from the guild account (as opposed to a user's resources). Some captains, in their zeal, went quite overboard with their spending on subforums - not just due to their novelty value but also likely because the guild gold could not (and still cannot) be used for anything else, so why not stock up on subforums? The reality is subforums are a powerful tool for organising posts and interaction in a guild, but the more you have the more fragmented the forum appears and the more difficult the posting experience becomes. In short: the more you have, the less you use. Always keep in mind that GGN guilds are just like any forum in Gaia. The difference is we need to pay gold to use these fantastic organising tools, while new subforums can be architected into any main forum in Gaia by staff at no cost. And yet, you won't find many of those forums with more than four or five subforums. The reason is simple, and it's an age-old principle that has become especially prominent in web design as new technology has erupted around the place. It's called KISS - or Keep it Simple, Stupid. Subforums add complexity to a page. Two subforums are half as complicated as four. Four subforums are at least half as complicated as eight. Sixteen is absurd, and probably infinitely more complicated than four. Users need to look over the title for each subforum, guess what's in there, and decide whether they want to access it or not. (And if they use a dial-up internet connection, they also have to judge whether it is worth it or not.) Unfortunately GGN subforums don't support those nifty subtitles that appear in the main forums to beneath subforums' titles to describe their contents, and yet still captains don't seem to take the simple process of naming their subforums very seriously at all. I've seen guilds with a subforum called "*~Chat*," "The Base," "General Discussion" and "Main Forum," and I've seen guilds with a subforum called something like "Software Discussion," directly above another one called "Photoshop Discussion." These titles represent possibly the three most commonly used worst practices when it comes to titling subforums. The titles of subforums, as well as organising and distributing the content they contain, will be the focus of this section.
Good titlesThis article will emphasise the importance of keeping things simple. A simplistic approach is important.
The title of a subforum needs to describe what goes on in there with a short and sharp label. If the forum is simply used for discussing something - let's say Adobe Photoshop - call it "Photoshop Discussion" or "Photoshop Talk." These titles are conventional on Gaia so members will instantly recognise the standard and so know what goes on inside. Make sure to spell the subject's name correctly (not Photo Shop or PhotoShop), use capitals to start each word and do not finish with a full stop. Don't use any text decoration. The title's simplicity and directness means there's no need to put a description after it (at least not until caption/description support is added to the GGN features arsenal).
If the forum contains a certain type of topic only - such as avatar contests, mini shops, money games or quests - name the subforum after that: "Avatar Contests." (Yes; simple - but overlooked surprisingly often.)
Follow standards and be consistent. This means to follow Gaia's standards of naming subforums if in doubt, and to title your forums using the same terminology. For example, you should not have a forum called "Official Photoshop Talk" above a forum called "Discussion of InDesign" above a forum called "Chat About GoLive," etc. In that sequence, the word "official" is just stupid and "discussion of" and "chat about" are weird, too. Even if "Photoshop Discussion / InDesign Discussion / GoLive Discussion" sounds boring to you, that's the conventional and simplest way to present that information. Use it.
Allocating subjects to subforums and the main forumAny one subforum should not contain discussion on more than one subject. (If you have subjects not important enough for their own subforums, they shouldn't have a subforum at all; throw them in General Discussion or in a more general subforum.) If you don't want GD, allocate the main forum to general discussion of your guild's topic that doesn't fit into any of your subforums. If you don't want that, use it for the most common thing you expect members to do in the guild - for example, if your guild is focussed on a particular roleplay, the main forum can be for that. If your whole guild is a "world" in which a roleplay takes place, the main forum can include things like "The Front Gate," "The Sign-up Sheet," "OOC Pub" and any other general roleplay threads you care to make. Alternatively, you can reserve the main forum exclusively for announcements and for stickies that specify the rules and guidelines for the guild, etc. Bear in mind, though, that the main forum is indeed the first place people go to when they visit the guild; it's the easiest to post in and the simplest part of the guild experience. As soon as you introduce subforums, guild activity is fragmented as it divides itself up across the different forums. If you take away the original forum you may confuse some people, and will certainly promote a drop in activity as you add one more step to the posting process.
So what does go into a subforum? Obviously this depends on what your guild is about. Let's take a look at the most common subforum ideas and trends across the GGN at the moment. We'll explore what is a good idea, what isn't and when you should designate one of them to a subforum in your guild.Memorable Threads
A lot of guilds caught on with the idea of a subforum for "memorable threads" like Gaia's memorable threads forum. Before subforums were supported by the GGN a lot of communities struggled with the choice of what to do when a once-popular topic began to slowly slip further and further down the forum until nobody even looked at it anymore: they couldn't really bring themselves to delete it, and yet they wanted to keep the forum clean and only display fresh, active topics. A subforum for old goldies seems like a good solution.
 Use it when: you don't have many other subforums. The idea is good, but not critically important, and if you have better ways to utilise the couple of subforums you already have, you needn't waste the gold nor sacrifice the usability of your guild in getting another for topics you don't even look at anymore.
 Definitely DON'T use it when: you have five or more subforums already, or if you've never (or infrequently) run into the "Where should I put this topic now?" dilemma before.
Recycle Bin
As many captains know, all topics (and posts) that are deleted from a guild actually go to a giant "recycle bin" in the GGN, which is hidden from normal members but viewable by Gaia Moderators so that they can review any evidence which may have been removed in relation to a report. A similar system was implemented in some guilds which put captains in more control: they could simply order their Crew to only move unwanted topics to a (Crew-only) "Recycle Bin" subforum, from where they could be viewed at a later time for any reason. This idea seemed even more natural when combined with the Crew Log in the GGN 2.0's Moderator Panel, which records when a Crew member moves or deletes a topic - in this way a captain could make sure a Crew member didn't permanently delete anything that should go to the guild's recycle bin. This subforum use provided the guild with increased flexibility with unwanted topics and gave the captain more control.
Use it when: you've got nothing else to do with a subforum you erroneously bought, or if you only have one or two other subforums. Also, if happens to be especially relevant or necessary in your guild's operation (e.g. if there are lots of members and lots of topics are deleted regularly, and debates often arise that a recycle bin could help quell).
Definitely DON'T use it when: you don't have to. It's just another subforum that your normal members can't see, and like any Crew-only subforum that makes them feel bad. You're just channelling more control to yourself, so unless you really need it and plan to use it effectively for the benefit of everyone, avoid it.
General Discussion
One common trend that arose as captains sought to organise their guilds to an extreme extent was to allocate general discussion to a subforum of its own (and reserve the main forum only for announcements and stickies with important information). This idea varied in implementation (the main forum's use varied between guilds) but the overall intention was the same: organise everything. What these captains didn't take into consideration was the issue of usability: members were used to quickly accessing the guild through its main forum (many people assign the main forum for a frequented guild to a Favourites or Bookmark list in their browsers). When you banish general discussion (which is what most members do most of all in a guild) to a subforum, you are adding another step to the posting process and making the guild experience more complicated. Think of the way the Gaia Forums work: the main forum in any area is always allocated to general discussion on that area, while the subforums branch off into more specialised areas which stem from and explore the main area - for example, in the Gaia Exchange the main forum is for general Exchange discussion, while subforums are used to branch off into areas of Lotto / Money Games, Charities / Quests, Wanted, Gaia Marketplace Discussion and Gaia Item Exchange. Guild forums should follow a similar formula for maximum effectiveness - members love organisation, but not at the expense of simplicity; give them their General Discussion in the main forum. Please.
To clarify, "general discussion" does not necessarily refer to "chat," but perhaps to something else if your guild has a specific subject - for example, if your guild is based on a comic book series "general discussion" would refer to general discussion of that series, or perhaps of comic books.
Use it when: General discussion is, for some reason, not the lifeblood of your guild - i.e. most members don' visit the guild to discuss things, but to do something else (such as RP). Use it when GD a small, secondary aspect of what your guild is about.
Definitely DON'T use it when: It is the most common thing members do in the guild.
Announcements
Another trend influenced by the way greater Gaia works, some captains created
Use it when: you've got nothing else to do with a subforum you erroneously bought, or if you only have one or two other subforums. Also, if happens to be especially relevant or necessary in your guild's operation (e.g. if there are lots of members and lots of topics are deleted regularly, and debates often arise that a recycle bin could help quell).
Definitely DON'T use it when: you don't have to. It's just another subforum that your normal members can't see, and like any Crew-only subforum that makes them feel bad. You're just channelling more control to yourself, so unless you really need it and plan to use it effectively for the benefit of everyone, avoid it.
The 10 Commandments of SubforumsThe main forum is for GD, thou shalt not have any other subjects before GD.
Thou shalt not use random characters in the titles of subforums. All of thine subforums' titles shalt be grammatically and literately correct.
Thou shalt not allocate multiple subjects to any one subforum.
Thou shalt not use names that make no sense.
Thou shalt not allocate the main forum to only news and announcements, thereby shunning GD to a subforum (thou art excepted from this rule if thou doth not have GD in thy guild).
Thou shalt not use subforums for subjects that are sub-categories of other subforums.
Thou shalt not have a Crew-only subforum, lest it be absolutely and unavoidably necessary.
Thou shalt not make subforums unnecessarily - e.g. for announcements.
Thou shalt not have separate subforums for similar/repeated subjects - e.g. "Chat," "Spam," "General Discussion," "Polls" and "Hangout threads," lest thou be thought a loser.
Make a guild directorySubforums add complexity to a guild. They make it harder to find your way around. You'd better add something that will help demystify the layout for members, both new and old. That's why it's important to author a simple, obvious directory in the main forum, in a sticky (or announcement if you have more than three stickies already). There are just a few practices to bear in mind as you write one for your guild.Title it well. I suggest "Guild Directory" or "[guild name] Directory." This is the hardest step for some people.
List all areas of the guild. (This means use the LIST BBCode tag.) Write the titles in bold and perhaps in a different colour.
Add a succinct description. Not necessary, really, if the titles are nice and self-explanatory.
Use an appropriately-sized font, with appropriate colour. Consider how much the reader might need to scroll down the page - if you use size 24 the reader will need to scroll a lot. If you use size 9 some readers will need to squint and the information's importance is undermined. And using a dopey colour like puke green or baby-poo brown is just... tasteless. Yellow is too pale and fluorescent pink will clash. Choose a dark colour if you want to format with colour - blue, purple or green.
Check all spelling and grammar before posting. If you know you make typographical errors on occasion you should be responsible now and go over this once or twice or thrice until you are certain you've found all the typos and zapped 'em all. It reflects badly on the guild if you have typos in the directory.
Special best practices for RP guildsCaptains of RP guilds have developed new and different ways to utilise the powerful yet simple subforum tools available to them, and in most cases the effect is stunning, with the guild really bringing to life more than it could before the diversity of the world its members RP in. Examples include "schools" wherein each subforum is a classroom, military bases where each subforum is a part of a barracks and even entirely fictitious worlds (such as the Lenian Knights Guild's "Lenia" and the Empire of Atlantis Guild's Atlantis) where each subforum is a province or island or region. In the case of a school the subforums might be named normally enough - "Maths Classroom," "English Classroom," "Defence Against the Dark Arts Classroom," etc. - much like the Gaia events themselves. However, some "world" guilds name each subforum after a "province." This generally means the names are either entirely made-up words or are just random place names - either way, this can be hard for a new member (or any member) to understand right away. If you own a guild like this, you need to make a special effort to inform your members of what is where.
This forum structure promotes members browsing through the subforums one by one - as a means of "exploring" the world. Most guilds encourage members to identify themselves as "villagers" (or similar title) from one of these provinces, so in making the decision of where to belong all members will want to visit each place at least once and see what it has to offer.
With that in mind, here are the best practices for setting up a guild with this structure.
Keep it small.
Bearing in mind your guild will end up with a number of subforums with titles that make no sense, and that members will want to explore it all in one go at least once, and that you're setting up a world you're going to need to manage and maintain yourself; you don't want to make it too big. Three or four provinces is practically the maximum you should have - certainly no more than five, which will become too confusing and too big for your members.
Plan, plan, plan.
Think the whole guild through before you even think about opening it up. Plan each province: what will make it unique? What will attract people to it? What storylines will come from it?
Write up the storylines.
In a word processing application (like Microsoft Word) which has spelling and grammar checking, write up your storylines. Use scrap paper to draw up mind maps first if you wish. Whatever your usual techniques are for authoring roleplays, do them. Go over it all once you're done and make sure it all works. Copy and paste it into new topics and distribute them throughout the guild. Buy subforums as you need them.
Write up guilds stickies and announcements.
Organise the rest of the guild now. A good directory is crucial. Rules are also important. Any other stickies you wish to organise may be made.
You pass.
Yay. Now go forth and open your guild to the public. Recruit wisely and advertise responsibly. Remember that feedback from your members is what will keep the guild running. Your members are your most valuable asset, in fact, because they have different ideas for the guild to you, and you already know all your own ideas.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 3:30 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 11:30 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:00 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:30 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 1:00 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 1:30 am
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 2:00 am
Help improve this guide.
Please post your suggestions and comments in the Feedback topic in the main forum.
PMs are also welcome. Send one now.
Keep checking this thread and this guild for updates and new services.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
