Hey I'm not saying anyone on here is doing this but I just want to say something. If you are into guild recruitment and you find a person has their guild invites turned off, please don't whisper an invite. Guild invites is turned on by default. If it's turned off, they did it for a reason and don't want whispered invites either. Yes we can turn whispers off but there is still need for communication so it stays on. Please be courteous folks. We don't all want to deal with the drama of guilds, that's why they give us the option to turn guild invites off. Thanks.

I recruit via private messages. Recruitment is part of building a raid team. As I said before, I currently have two full raid teams and am building a third. I pm people directly and in world / general. I feel like auto-inviting to guild is obnoxious, but I have no issues with sending out general guild spam. This has actually been the bread and butter to my recruitment.

Originally I focused on people who were 50-60. Then, as my teams came closer to finality I would /who individual classes that were 55-60. Some people on my server claim this is "poaching" for people who are already in guilds, but I disagree. I found a ton of folks who had been locked into a guild at level 60, and they only had 4-5 other level 60's in their guild. My recruitment message ended in them getting into a raid within the week (and many brought the rest of their guilds for a full merge). I dont have any issues sending out spam to individuals and I dont have any issues sending general spam in world channels, even to guilded people.

I'm not going to say guild recruitment spam is awesome. Of course it is annoying... You have a few options. /Ignore the guy who sends it to you or just personally ignore the spam and move along. As someone who leads a guild, its my responsibility to keep a full raid roster. I owe it to my current guys to keep their teams full and to keep their opportunities open and if that irritates others, I'm okay with that. Many of the guys who complain dont have a full raid team and arent able to provide their guys value, so if my methods irritate them, I couldnt care less.

Zacheous wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Hey I'm not saying anyone on here is doing this but I just want to say something. If you are into guild recruitment and you find a person has their guild invites turned off, please don't whisper an invite. Guild invites is turned on by default. If it's turned off, they did it for a reason and don't want whispered invites either. Yes we can turn whispers off but there is still need for communication so it stays on. Please be courteous folks. We don't all want to deal with the drama of guilds, that's why they give us the option to turn guild invites off. Thanks.

I dont know if you have your invites turned on or off because I dont spam invites... Being a part of a guild is a massive portion of the game for many folks. Being talked to and recruited is part of an active community within an MMO. When I am not leading a guild, I like when I get guild messages because it means a few things... It means things are happening on my server, my class or spec is in demand and I get to field my options and see if there is something that potentially suits me better.

TLDR; getting whispers is part of participating in a multiplayer world.

As STFU said, a simple "no thanks" is usually all it takes. And randomly inviting people is a great way to say "this guild is not one to be taken remotely seriously."

I think that we should stop with these "stop doing this thing that is part of the game because it annoys me personally" threads.

It is understandable, yes, and maybe there aren't a lot of tools to help you avoid these whispers which sucks on your part, but try to be reasonable instead of lashing out against the community for not catering to your personal needs.

People can't read your mind to know that you don't like these whispers, and all of them are with an arguably good intent of inviting you to be part of their community.

As mentioned above, a "no thanks" is enough and polite.
As for spammers, you can just ignore them.

Foohy wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I think that we should stop with these "stop doing this thing that is part of the game because it annoys me personally" threads.

I should make a thread about this...

Foohy wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I think that we should stop with these "stop doing this thing that is part of the game because it annoys me personally" threads.

It is understandable, yes, and maybe there aren't a lot of tools to help you avoid these whispers which sucks on your part, but try to be reasonable instead of lashing out against the community for not catering to your personal needs.

People can't read your mind to know that you don't like these whispers, and all of them are with an arguably good intent of inviting you to be part of their community.

As mentioned above, a "no thanks" is enough and polite.
As for spammers, you can just ignore them.

Foohy wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I think that we should stop with these "stop doing this thing that is part of the game because it annoys me personally" threads.

I should make a thread about this...

I totally agree. I'm glad that's the consensus on this forum...i think i'll like this place..*ponders in gnome*

The casuals in classic are getting...offended a lot. This is why i avoid Reddit.

MagePinksy wrote: ↑

4 years ago

The casuals in classic are getting...offended a lot. This is why i avoid Reddit.

Casuals get offended by hardcores, and hardcores get triggered by casuals. It's basically the same in any community. The trick is to try to find a happy medium, or learn patience with the opposite end of the community to your own.

Selexin wrote: ↑

4 years ago

MagePinksy wrote: ↑

4 years ago

The casuals in classic are getting...offended a lot. This is why i avoid Reddit.

Casuals get offended by hardcores, and hardcores get triggered by casuals. It's basically the same in any community. The trick is to try to find a happy medium, or learn patience with the opposite end of the community to your own.

As someone recruiting for a guild, it's difficult to find someone who is in between anymore. Either I'm getting level 20s who will be 60 sometime shortly after New Years 2020, or I find the level 60s wanting "RAID. RIGHT NOW." We are the unfortunate middle ground of people who leveled seriously but put life first. Pickins in our category feel slimmer by the day.

Steerclear wrote: ↑

4 years ago

As someone recruiting for a guild, it's difficult to find someone who is in between anymore. Either I'm getting level 20s who will be 60 sometime shortly after New Years 2020, or I find the level 60s wanting "RAID. RIGHT NOW." We are the unfortunate middle ground of people who leveled seriously but put life first. Pickins in our category feel slimmer by the day.

Just make a guild note that expressly advertises what you are looking to build.

Example

<RHINOS> Recruiting caster dps for weekday raid team (tues/wed 6pm server time). First MC clear within the next 4 weeks. Must be 50+ PST.

VS

<RHINOS> Interested in PvE? PvP? World events? RHINOS IS THE TEAM FOR YOU! We like to raid, pvp, world event, RP, level alts, hardcore, casual...

The 2nd ad has no purpose. The first outlines exactly where you are at and what you are attempting to build. The first guild will get somewhere, regardless of where they are currently at, while the 2nd guild will never get anywhere and will become a feeder guild because they lack direction and purpose.

Who do you target? You have 2 demographics you need to target. I take the median level of my active userbase and I target players within that range. This keeps my guild alive and serves to build a strong community for the average player within my guild. I also recruit specifically for my primary team. I look at my roster. If my main pack of guys is 60, I focus on recruiting specific classes that range between 55-60 to round out my comp for raiding.

You never want to abandon your median level guys, because many of these guys will be loyal longterm. These are the guys that have low expectations and are far more casual. These guys are actually the cornerstone members for longterm success. However, you need to provide your hardcores with value. The fast levelers are impatient. They want value... They NEED value. If you cant provide your max level guys value, they will leave and rightly so.

Where to recruit? General chat, the odd world chat and /who specific classes in specific level ranges and send PM's to players. You can even sort by guild to focus on guys who are unguilded.

Offer incentives. "Farming weekly raid attunes Fridays, PM to get added to an attune list and get yourself attuned this weekend!" I do a lot of PR stuff outside of guild and will spend time attuning people who are outside of my guild. Why? Because you are offering your team value and you are opening a lot of opportunities for recruitment. If these guys are in other guilds but are attending YOUR attunement day, their guilds are not providing them value and this offers you the chance to pick them up. This also gets your name on the map. I try to do MC PUG trash runs on fridays, attunes, all sorts of stuff.

Very few people care about the name that floats above their head. Dont expect people to be loyal when you have not provided value. People wont join a guild and stay because you went to a vendor and purchased a charter. Good guilds provide their team value and good guilds have no issues adding members or keeping the members they have, regardless of their current position on the server. You can be behind the pack and offer better value than some guilds who are "established" if you understand how to leverage value.

Our recruitment has not been uber strict, but we don't just say, "Whisper for invite!" then autoinvite every name that pops up in pink letters. We have a conversation with folks, get a feel for them, and most have been awesome. A few justs aid, "I don't think that pace works for me," and that was that. No harm, no foul, we're like college - we ain't fer everyone, right? :)

Admittedly, we've been a guild for a little over two weeks and we're already packing in the 50s, but it's hard to recruit properly, even going by your parameters, because I can't predict when we expect to full clear MC, or even START.

Do you think setting the "X-weeks until MC goal" is more positive or negative? Because on the one hand, you'll probably get more attention that way. On the other hand, if you fail, where does that leave you? At least you tried? Eh...

I'll give it a try. Useful tip and I'm actually irritated I didn't think of it myself. (In fact, I did. It's my idea now.)

Steerclear wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Admittedly, we've been a guild for a little over two weeks and we're already packing in the 50s, but it's hard to recruit properly, even going by your parameters, because I can't predict when we expect to full clear MC, or even START.

This is why you should not be strict. You should not be weeding people out. The guild will organically weed people out. If you are building a guild, your recruitment should be loose. You should let most people in. Remember, you cant offer much value, so when you start turning people down you are massively diminishing your chances at getting solid players and the players you do have are getting less value from the guild, because your recruitment is tight.

This is how I do recruitment.

Open recruitment (I take almost anyone) until I can provide value. Then when I have a raid team assembled, I do selective recruiting to fill my raid and close recruitment on specific classes. Then when my team is established and clearing content, we do a more intimate screening process.

If you start with a screening process, but have minimal value, you are getting rid of a ton of potential talent for no benefit. I have done this in the past. My philosophy used to be "recruit the right people and you wont have to replace them". So I would screen right out of the gate. Unfortunately, people are not dependable. You can recruit 40 guys that are the picture-perfect raiders, but 1/2 of them wont end up leveling, 2 or 3 will end up quitting the game entirely, 1 of them will end up gquitting with his 4 friends that were in your guild and a handful will slowly reveal that they have never played an MMO before and that they were just bullshitting... Dont count your chickens before they hatch. Recruit until you have 40 guys actively showing up on raid night.

Steerclear wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Do you think setting the "X-weeks until MC goal" is more positive or negative? Because on the one hand, you'll probably get more attention that way. On the other hand, if you fail, where does that leave you? At least you tried? Eh...

I'll give it a try. Useful tip and I'm actually irritated I didn't think of it myself. (In fact, I did. It's my idea now.)

I think having goals that are time oriented is mandatory for leadership. Dont bite off more than you can chew and set obtainable goals. But those goals are what gives your team hope and inspires new recruits to join. Without goals and a clearly determined path, youre just another guy saying he wants to raid someday at some point for some reason. This gives you wiggle room to be lazy and unfocused and wont give your guys any confidence in the direction of the guild. Goals are important, even if you miss them occasionally.

All good points. For sure. My prior guilds have had some success in the past, but my vanilla guild was pretty much just a bunch of fellas (myself included) who sucked at the game and it showed. Thankfully, that's changed, and a couple of those guys still stick around with me to this day, so many years later.

I should clarify - the only two things I do to weed people out are hunt for 30+ (which is NOT that difficult, since you can casual your way to 30 in a month easy), and raid times starting at midnight EST. That's it. The ones for which it did not work out were simply because they needed raids to be only on Saturday and Sunday, for instance, which we will not do, as most of us have families and want to leave weekends open for them. (That or they didn't read that our raids will start at midnight and expected us to be a typical 8pm to 11pm raid guild.)

I have NOT turned anyone away because I didn't think they were up to snuff. This is Vanilla, after all, not Mythic Vanilla. This is the intro. Even moderately shitty players can do just fine. Learn your path in MC. Up your game in BWL. Hammer it down in AQ40. Perfect it in Naxx.