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Guild Manifesto
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Zion

(Last Reviewed / Updated 03-13-2020)

Welcome to Zion!  Zion is a World of Warcraft guild that is dedicated to being a guild first and activities second.   The more involved you get in the guild, the more opportunities you have to make lasting friends.

It is my belief that you get what you give.  

Zion tries to have a variety of activities going on.  But, Zion is primarily a PvE focused.  I aim to try and find people that want a level of maturity above “trade chat trolling” where people treat each other with respect, kindness and generosity.  Though age isn’t a restriction, you may find quite a number of folks of all ages.

The majority of guild activities will be scheduled between 5 and 10PM Central time (Server Time).

These guidelines attempt to ensure that any “guild managed” activities are structured to be egalitarian.  That is as fair as they can be without regard for  age, gender, sexual preference, race, national origin, etc.   Any rules and policy are aimed to ensure we handle things fair based on the leadership's perspective.

If you have questions or comments about the guild, feel free to talk to Kurston! (see contact).   If you read the Q & A, hopefully your question will be there.  If you have interest in being an officer, or helping to actually maintain our large guild, let Kurston know.

CONTENTS

Zion Guild

History

Contact Info for Guild Manager (Kurston/Patrick)

Guild Activities

Raids

PvP

New activities

Guild Chat

Chat Disputes

Voice Chat

Guild Ranks

Management Ranks

Member Ranks

Inactivity

Guild Bank

Guild Repairs

Guild Invites

Unacceptable Character Names

Alts

Character Notes

Children (<16)

Be a “guildie”

Raiding

Creating a new team

Raiding Roles

Raiding Loot

Raid Schedule

Weekend Raid Team

Joining Weekend Raid Team

Waitlist

Weekday Raid Team

Joining Weekday Raid Team

Waitlist

Weekday Attendance

Weekday New/Reinstated Players

Raid Interruptions

Mythic Plus Activities

“Cool Kids Club”

PvP Activities

Questing Help

Zion Guild

History

The guild was formed in 2008, and was originally named “Zion Boys”.  The name originated from a module “Bonds of Blood” in the game Neverwinter’s Nights.   “Zion” was the “Alliance”.  To us, Zion just means “the good guys”, no religious context..  We brought the name with us.  The name of the city was “Zion Beta”.  

Founding Members you might still see around sometimes: Kurston, Parney, Parain (Gulagum), Belinzod (Seferi), Mako.

Sometimes Kurston might call the guild ZB for Zion Boys or Zion Beta.

Contact Info for Guild Manager (Kurston/Patrick)

Guild Activities

Raids

The primary guild activity is raiding.  You can read more about it below.

New activities

If you have ideas for new activities, please please please work with your guild team rather than striking out on your own within the guild.  We like all guild activities to fit a bigger picture.

Guild Chat

Zion has a mix of ages, countries, genders, political backgrounds and religions. Be cautious when introducing contentious topics and back away from debate on them. Politics and Religion are typically not great topics of discussion, no one is converted to your way of thinking.  Swearing is allowed but avoiding being overly lewd or crude is expected.

 If someone goes over the top, I will ask them to tone it down.

Things that will catch my attention in guild chat:

  1. Words that won’t get too much attention: damn, shit, hell.
  2. Excessive swearing will get attention.
  3. Explicit sexual statements - a little double entendre or play on words (things young folks might miss), are fine.   I don’t want to hear about your latest encounter and what you did with your privates or what they look like.
  4. Using any derogatory term to a gender or sexual orientation.  
  5. Any hostile communication.  If things need to be heated they do not belong in the public.
  6. Publicly insulting another player.  If someone needs to do better or be better, there are nicer ways to say it, please try.  Notable exceptions include hazing someone that is open to it or a friendly banter.
  7. I am not perfect either.  I am always policing myself as well.
  8. We are not trying to be totally politically correct, a little off-humor happens.  We just have to keep it “cool”.
  9. Hating on political stances.  It is usually best to limit discussion on political topics rather than have debates.  That is, try to keep it short and move on.  Example: I hate Obama (end of topic).  I love Obama (end of topic).   More than that and you’ll probably just cause discomfort and debate that’s unnecessary and won’t end well.  If your company is able to stay amical about it on discord proceed with caution.

Chat Disputes

These happen.  Members have to recognize that players make mistakes.  I am not going to guild kick someone for one off-color statement.   I will ask them to tone it down or refrain.  If they can’t seem to bring it in line, then I might take action.  Tolerance is key and sometimes a little color can be fun when you get to know people.   Many times, the better you know the person, the more “color” you’ll take from them.

Voice Chat

Many of the players like to “talk” as well as type.  The voice chat information is on the in-game “Guild Info” tab.   We currently use Discord.

You don’t have to wait for a raid night to talk to people.  I am typically on the voice system when I am online and usually happy to chat..  Note, voice chat will be under the same guidelines as Guild Chat.   Though, when in smaller subsets of known folks, things can get a little more “punchy” and the folks on their try to adjust when they know who’s listening.

Guild voice will also contain potential swearing.  So long as that is not directed toward a player out of good humor, this is fine.   Examples.

Guild Ranks

Management Ranks

Member Ranks

Certain bank tabs may be restricted to certain ranks.  Depositing will usually be allowed on all tabs, but withdrawals may be limited by rank.   New members have no access.

Inactivity

Players that go inactive over 4.5 months are at hazard to being removed.  The game limits the number of characters in a guild to 999 (characters not accounts).  If you must be away for an extended period, do not panic if you are removed.  I preserve a list of all previous members and when they joined so you can preserve your guild participation history.  Just ping me in game or someone else in the guild and say “I’m back”.

Guild Bank

The guild bank is your resource, not mine.  I do not own it nor the gold in it.  As you rank up in membership I give more access to the bank.  However if you need anything in there just ask.  The key reason for limiting it is trusting players to use it appropriately.

Be respectful and use the bank to benefit everyone.  Take only what you need and share what you don’t.  

Take for yourself but not for you to sell for profit.  If I catch you selling guild items on the auction house, you will lose bank privileges permanently.  I do check.  Maybe not quickly, but quickly enough.

Access to the guild tabs may depend on what activities you participate in (see ranks above) and time within guild.

Guild Repairs

I would love to offer guild repairs to the whole guild.  Raising guild gold is challenging.  The Leading raid team in Warlords spent months raising gold for guild repairs for raiding.  Therefore, currently, only dedicated (keep good attendance) raiders get guild repairs.  

Guild Invites

If invites are enabled, invite others with caution, or you can send them to me.  We want your friends in the guild, but we have to manage the guild size as we have grown.  If you do invite someone, you can let me know so I can update their guild note.   Remember we are so high on membership so every addition matters.

Unacceptable Character Names

Blizzard has a ToU on acceptable character names.  They police on player reports.  I personally don’t have a restrictive policy, but I will, on occasion, turn people away even if they are friends, if their names are intended to be offensive or explicitly sexual in nature.   You may find it funny, but others do not and some people allow their children to play in-guild with them.

Yes, we are a guild with adults, we want to keep things friendly and not everyone perceives things the same.  It is possible that your character name is trying too hard.  It is just a name, pick one for RP instead.

Alts

Alts are welcome, but I might limit how many alts if the guild gets overly full. When joining the guild on an alternate character, please let the inviter know your main’s name so they can set up your guild note used to track guild membership.

Character Notes

Character notes will be either the date you joined the guild or the name of your main.  This is used by an add-on to help me track active players.   If you’d like to use the “Alts” add-on it announces the “main’s” name when people chat so you never get confused.

Children (<16)

Children are fine...but…I do not police the guild chat against occasional off-color humor (see guild chat).  My point is, it is great to have our kids in a mature environment and for the most part it is better than what's out there.

Be a “guildie”

This section is more of my opinion rather than a guild policy.  I do not require members to think the way I think.  But I want you to consider them Kurston’s goals.  I am not perfect and sometimes I even misstep on my own guides.  We all strive to be the best.

I will not judge if others don’t live by my personal goals)

Raiding

The key to making WoW fun is trying to be accepting of individual strengths and weaknesses and making a team from the resources we have and from the limited time people have available to play.

We currently host two raiding teams.  They operate very differently and have a different pace.  Players can participate in both so long as there is room. .

The raid leads of the individual teams within these guidelines are given leeway to adjust how they would like to operate the teams and these configurations may change between raid-lead changes.

Creating a new team

Occasionally I am asked to create another raid team because these nights aren’t good for them or perhaps because these teams are well attended and some positions harder to get (tank/heals) that it would open more opportunity to tank/heal.  

While it would give more opportunity it also adds complexity to the guild.  I (Kurston) do my best to create a non-competitive environment.  Therefore, currently, the two teams are synergistic.  The more dedicated players help the more casual players when they have time.  

At this time, we are not planning to create a 3rd team because it (a) requires another raid lead (b) may overlap / compete with existing teams for players based on times, objectives, etc.  This might change if the number of players / teams ratio is high enough.

If you would like to discuss this topic further, because I am not against the idea, I just know how much work it really takes because I have done it twice.  Send a note in discord if you would like to discuss it.

Raiding Roles

Raiding is a team sport.  We have to fit together a mix of players that need to be flexible in the jobs they are selected to perform.  We will try to give players the roles they want, but Tank and Heal roles are typically more limited than DPS roles.

As we progress from raid to raid, the team will give deference to those in existing heal / tank roles first before shifting and we keep a waitlist for those wishing that position when they become available.

Raiding Loot

Loot is the most contentious part of raiding.  More drama comes from this than anything else in this game.  Believing that you are more deserving of loot or that loot is distributed unfairly is a common problem.

Kurston’s Philosophy on loot:  Loot is only gear... soon to be replaced.

Blizzard has changed all loot to Personal Loot.  So, as a guild, we will treat it so.

In short, Personal Loot is yours; you can offer, but don’t ask.

We want no drama.  Personal loot is personal loot.  When it lands in your bag, it is yours.   You can trade it, off-spec it, vendor it, disenchant it, or scrap it.  It will be up to you.

Do not ask "do you need that?"   However, you can offer.   

Why?  Because you put social pressure on the person to decide and we try not to use social pressure.  Some people have a tendency to be more giving when pressured than others.  Let them arrive at their own level of giving since it is their loot.

Trading - We may ask raiders to use or participate with a “trading” add-on to facilitate trading so raid leaders / raid assistants don’t have to handle it.

Handling Trades:

Note:

Raid Schedule

Both teams follow a basic raiding schedule:

Weekend Raid Team

This is our “casual” raiding team.  We ask players to:

Joining Weekend Raid Team

Weekend raiding has traditionally been the more casual raid team.   Because the attendance requirement is lower, the balance of the team can fluctuate from raid night to raid night.   Multi-role players must be flexible to accomodate the size.

To join the team, make your request to the guild lead or weekend raid lead and you’ll be added to the waitlist for consideration by the raid lead.

Players are added from the waitlist based on team need and / or availability of role.   Waitlist additions can be halted at the end of tiers to preserve progress.

Each raid team has a “raid” planning worksheet that allows them to track requests.

Monday/Tuesday members may attend if there is room (as said above, they give deference to weekend only members).   It is not uncommon for M/T to come to help the more casual team.

Waitlist

We will establish an ordered wait list which is mostly roles-based (i.e. for roles that have limited need like tanks and heals).  

Weekday Raid Team

This is our “dedicated” raiding team.  We ask all players to:

Switching characters is at the discretion of the raid lead and is guarded to prevent affecting progress when later in the tier but are at the discretion of the raid lead to prevent delays in progress.

Joining Weekday Raid Team

The “dedicated” (high attendance required)  weekday raid team tries to create a balanced raid team to approach Blizzard content with a good mix of melee to ranged players in addition to healers to number ratio.

To join the team, make your request to the guild lead or raid lead and you’ll be added to the waitlist for consideration.  

Players are added from the waitlist based on team need and / or availability of role.   Waitlist additions can be halted at the end of tiers to preserve progress.

Waitlist

We will establish an ordered wait list once the team is full.  When a position is opened, a player has 1 week to answer before the next person on the list is picked up for the team.  Waitlisted players are not invited to raid even if we have space available.  It is disruptive and allows part-time raiders because the team always has a couple absentees.

If you are waiting for a new position or to join the team, we have a priority order which gives deference to long standing position holders.   We have some players that like to shift around and others that do not.

Waitlist priorities:

  1. Same Team / Same Role >
  2. Same Team / Different Role >
  3. Different Team (new) / Same Role >  
  4. Different Team (new) / Different Role

Weekday Attendance

We want Mon/Tue to be the dedicated raiding team.  They are not necessarily “better” players, they are just able to play Mon/Tue and to keep attendance requirements.  We have asked that all players commit to an 80% attendance (allows two weeks absence every 10 weeks).   We want everyone to participate equally, fairly, and most importantly respectfully to other participants that are present.


We recognize that your life / work / other activities might intermittently interfere with someone’s ability to commit 100%, which is why we have 80%.   If you cannot meet 80%, you really aren’t committing to full-time raiding.

To ensure equitable participation, we have established the follow roster enforcement:

If your attendance drops below 80%, we will monitor it carefully.  

If removed, when you return you are not guaranteed there will be a spot available or role available and you will be at the bottom of the wish list for that role.

Attendance is on the guild web site.  Attendance is tracked using MRT Add-on (by join/leave) and calculated as accurately as possible (since 3/1/17, before partial was estimated).

Weekday New/Reinstated Players

The team may choose to freeze the raid size to prevent disruption.   This will typically occur mid-tiers.   Example: The team is half-way into a tier and wants to continue to progress on tough bosses and someone that is qualifying entry-gear-leveled wants to join.  A new player asking to join may or may not be allowed to join even if we have less than 30 on the roster until the next tier starts.  This can, unfortunately, be a long wait if it’s the last tier but we raid for years not months.

New players will be required to join at an acceptable ilvl based on the progression of the team and not necessarily the “entry” level of the raid depending on how far into the raid we have progressed.

Note: Weekend raid attendance does not apply toward “credit”, they are independent raiding activities.

Raid Interruptions

In order to keep our minimal raid schedule moving, we need to establish guidelines for several commonly cropping up situations that slow down the raid.  We will try to define the rules such that the team has the least interruption.

  1. Late Arrivals - Late arrivals should be prepared to provide their own food and flask. When you ask for a summons you should be buffed and ready to pull.
  2. Emergency Step away - It is possible you need to deal with an emergency.  
  1. Alert the team or lead.
  2. If before a pull, hearth out.
  3. If during a pull, leave the group.
  4. When you are ready to return, listen to voice and wait for a convenient moment to ask to be summoned back.
  5. If you are away for less than 15 minutes, your attendance will not be affected unless it occurs frequently.
  1. Returning from Break - Break is 6 minutes long.  Please return promptly.   There will be two ready checks.  
  1. At timer end, the cauldron will drop.  Return players should be buffing.
  2. One minute later, there will be a final warning and if you do not answer the check or voice, you will be removed until the next pull.
  3. When being picked up, have food and flask buffs before calling for a summons.
  1. Internet Issues - No one can predict these.
  1. The team will allow a minimal amount of time for internet issues to be resolved.
  2. If you plan a relog / reset please announce this.
  3. You may be removed or should remove yourself if the problem persists.

Mythic Plus Activities

Mythic Plus dungeons only require 5 people to organize.  Managing numerous 5-man teams would be difficult.   The leaves it to the individuals in the guild to self congregate.

Friend’s Groups

We have a guild of 310 players of all ages and that come with their own friends, histories and connections within the guild.

It is 100% natural that people that are related, married, friends in real life, have history, have nurtured a friendship, are around the same age, and/or like to do the same kind of content with cluster together and play together.  

The key is that guild-run activities are agnostic and follow as egalitarian processes as we can.   Nothing is perfect and rules do adjust when things seem off.

But hanging with friends as you’d naturally do is a good thing.

PvP Activities

The guild doesn’t not currently oversee PvP activities.  We have had requests to do so and thus far no success.   For any activity like this it takes someone with the right desire / knowhow to lead it up.

If you have interest in leading something, we can try to build it up, but recognize, however, it may take whole expansions or more to build interest.  It took me years to get a stable raid team.

Questing Help

It is perfectly fine to ask others for questing help or to gather in smaller groups to do questing.  Call out in guild chat.  However, do not be overly disappointed if you do not get a positive response every time.   Remember, when you log in other people are already actively doing things and may not be available or have interest in the activity you are doing.

Makes friends in the guild and over time you may find people warm up faster that way.