Etiquette question for zone chat and forums

Saddiq · February 2015

Hi all,

Quick etiquette question here re: guild invitations. Just created one and wondering how to make it known and get some members.

1) I don't think I've ever seen a forum topic announcing and inviting players to a guild on the forum boards. Seems like a logical place especially given that some forum topics speak directly to a hole my guild would attempt to fill. Is there some reason for this? Is it considered bad taste or something to create a forum topic explaining your guild and inviting people? I ask b/c I don't want to *** off a bunch of people by breaking some unspoken rule.

2) I sometimes see complaints about 'Zone spamming trade guilds'. Seems to me zone chat invitations are about the best place to advertise your guild and invite people. Certainly spamming it more than once every--oh, 4-5 minutes--would seem to be in bad taste. But if I pop into Stormhaven (since my guild would be centred around PVE groups) and advertise it in zone chat once every 5 minutes, am I breaking some unspoken rule, polluting zone chat, or otherwise being a jerk? I don't think so intuitively, but thought I'd check here first before I do it just in case.

Thanks for any direction.

UrQuan · February 2015

There is a section on the forums for guild advertising - divided out by the type of guild (PVE, PVP, RP).

Advertising in zone chat is perfectly fine too, as long as you're not constantly spamming your ad. Once every 5 minutes should be fine - especially if your ad isn't overly long. Some people who advertise guilds have ads so long that they basically take up the entire chat window, and that can annoy people.

Also, while it is a slower method of growing a guild, consider inviting anyone who you have played with in a PUG and had a good time with. You're more likely to get quality people in your guild this way.

One thing that I hate is the random drive-by guild invite. I've had this happen many times, and no I'm not going to join any guild where they see this as a viable method of recruiting. If I don't know anything about you or your guild, why would I join it just because I got an invitation? Randomly inviting everyone you see in a city tells me that your guild is going to be terrible with no sense of community. So don't do that method

Saddiq · February 2015

Awesome. Thanks for the answer.

Nestor · February 2015

UrQuan wrote: »

One thing that I hate is the random drive-by guild invite. I've had this happen many times, and no I'm not going to join any guild where they see this as a viable method of recruiting. If I don't know anything about you or your guild, why would I join it just because I got an invitation? Randomly inviting everyone you see in a city tells me that your guild is going to be terrible with no sense of community. So don't do that method

This is how people get a guild formed, and get the 500 slot bank unlocked. Then they don't care if you drop the guild or not.

Nestor · February 2015

Also, if you invite people in, make the entry level rank able to invite other people into the guild. This way your recruits can recruit. Just don't' give bank withdrawal privileges to anyone you don't know and trust. So, make that a few ranks higher.

Tandor · February 2015

Bear in mind also that a lot of players disable chat channels precisely to avoid being troubled by such things. If people are looking for a guild then they will probably know to look on the forums where there is a section for it.

I'm old school enough to think that guild recruitment is best done through personal contact with players you come across rather than by blanket and random invites, but each to his own

!

Saddiq · February 2015

Yeah, my inclination is along these lines, to invite the couple dozen friends I've gained through PUG-ing into it by in-game email, and give invite rights to them. I've always found limited bank restrictions a little uppity--but then, I'm not a greedy person and only ever went into my guild banks once when I was pretty desperate.

I figured the zone chat invite would complement that. I hate drive-bys too. Actually forgot all about it as it's been months since it last happened.

UrQuan · February 2015

Nestor wrote: »

UrQuan wrote: »

One thing that I hate is the random drive-by guild invite. I've had this happen many times, and no I'm not going to join any guild where they see this as a viable method of recruiting. If I don't know anything about you or your guild, why would I join it just because I got an invitation? Randomly inviting everyone you see in a city tells me that your guild is going to be terrible with no sense of community. So don't do that method

This is how people get a guild formed, and get the 500 slot bank unlocked. Then they don't care if you drop the guild or not.

Are there actually people who accept those invitations though? I mean, I guess there must be, but it just seems so strange to me that anyone would...

Athas24 · February 2015

I think there is some solid advice here. I run a social guild myself and we've never spammed in chats. We just recruit people that we find fun/chatty/interesting that we've grouped with for this and that. It does create a much higher sense of community, although it does take longer. The recruits recruiting is also a great idea and one that I've used myself. After all if someone really doesn't fit the guild's community they'll typically leave on their own because they won't be having fun in it.

Saddiq · February 2015

Hm, this is starting to make me think maybe I should skip zone chat invites entirely, and build it completely off of friends inviting friends' friends. I guess my concern is that I only have 2-3 dozen friends, and most of them probably have 5 guilds. I get along with them really well and have fun, but the guild could die from lack of oxygen if it doesn't get some numbers relatively quickly--because the premise of it is finding PUGs of people that play 'colourful builds' or non-min/max players. If you can't ever run a dungeon b/c there's only 5 players on at a time for a couple weeks, the guild loses its meaning. It needs some level of numbers relatively quick--is what I guess.

But I do like the concept of a slow build of a strong core--in theory.

radiostar · February 2015

Don't try the ole Looking for Group request in chat routine and then sending out a Guild invite instead to anyone responding. Everyone's onto that one.

Nestor · February 2015

UrQuan wrote: »

Are there actually people who accept those invitations though? I mean, I guess there must be, but it just seems so strange to me that anyone would...

It's almost always my L4 to L6 Mules that get these, so they target new players to the game. My VR Ranks only tend to get invites from what I would call established guilds based on PUGs or similar.

I think if ZOS disable the Guild Banks on Guilds that drop below 10 members for a certain length of time it would stop a lot of this mess. I think there should be a period of time where the guild can drop below 10 without bank penalty as some folks do have small guilds as that is what they want to have, a guild of just their close game friends, and someone might drop that at some point.

UrQuan · February 2015

Nestor wrote: »

UrQuan wrote: »

Are there actually people who accept those invitations though? I mean, I guess there must be, but it just seems so strange to me that anyone would...

It's almost always my L4 to L6 Mules that get these, so they target new players to the game. My VR Ranks only tend to get invites from what I would call established guilds based on PUGs or similar.

Hmm, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I only ever get these in the first zone too... That makes sense.