Reign has gone down the tubes. Seriously.
For you people who don’t know, Reign is the guild I’ve owned for about a year now. It started off strong, active members, long winded chats, trips to Aqualand (which was brand new at the time), the works.
And then my computer broke.
3 months! Computer AND internet breakage. And then I come back…
9/50 buddies were left. 16/25 people left in the guild. And it turns out EVERYONE thought I had died, since at the time I was going through one of my more… er, depressed… nevermind.
In any case, Reign started to go downhill from then. My ex had gotten on my account in the 3 months, and he must have made my guildies jr’s, because the ranks were different and EVERYONE was a jr. I never noticed, of course, until I woke up and we had 6 more inactive members.
I let it slide, but then some of my oldest members started to act differently. In my absence, they had gone from 4x to 6x, with Orbis glitch PQing. With these new levels, they got cocky and disrespectful, leaving the guild and asking to join back whenever they pleased. If I said no, they’d just go get another Jr. Master, who would have no idea what’s going on, and rejoin.
They thought that since they were now a higher level than their guild leader and that they had been in Reign from 9-11 months, they could run the place. They thought that they were so important that if I banned them from rejoining, that I’d break down, the guild would fall apart, and I would delete it.
They got one part right. The guild broke down. With their immature comments gone, the lavendar inkwell was dry. Few people even got on anymore, and when they did, they never spoke. It got to the point where, if someone wanted to join, I just said “Sure, whatever”, since I figured they would all end up leaving. Most of them stayed, but went inactive.
So, as of 8/03/07, I decided to take action. As soon as I got home from my orthodontist appointment (I got my braces off. ^^), I went on MapleStory, deleted everything in the guild BBS, and made 4 posts:
Reign Reborn
Reign Reborn 2
Reign Reborn 3
Reign Reborn 4
They highlighted that everyone would be kicked from the guild on 8/5/07, no matter who you were. They also told how one could be reinvited, and how, if they betrayed my trust again and left or went inactive without reason, they would absolutely be expelled again.
So far, 2/24 members have responded, and one went into her friend’s guild. However, in the rules I’m creating for Reign, the members-to-be will be extensively interviewed, to ensure we get optimal results.
So now, I ask you. Did I do the right thing? Should I have approached this differently?
Thanks for reading, and, as always, magnificent, joyous, glad, happy Mapling.
Your right. Leading a guild is serious stress.
I have led HugNotDrugs for about half a year now. I have dumped all my savings into it. During the school year, I can only go on Maple once a week, so whatever happens during the weekdays I must tend to during Saturday or Sunday. One Saturday, I log on, too see that there are only sixteen members left out of thirty-five.
“OMG, WHAT HAPPENED?!” I spammed in buddy chat and guild chat.
I genuinely wanted to disband the guild. I felt betrayed and useless. Soon after, I did the same thing you did, and let everyone who wanted to be in the guild in to it. Everything started getting better, but to this day, I still don’t know why all those people left. Perhaps they were expelled. I have no idea.
Keep at it. It may be hard, but being a leader in anything has its rewards. Its like raising a small puppy into being a full-grown strong dog.
Wow, I have no stress in it, since I basically treated everyone equal, And because my last hiatus was like, 8 months or so ago, I learned how to be an active leader, Only thing is, we just talk. No matter what the level they are, ranging from even as low as 9 to the 79. We are pretty much low-levels. Our levels are completely different.
Unfortunately, I decided the rankings wrong. Most people were Jr. . . Yes, I know. It’s sad. -_- Well, now we’re on guild lock-down, where it’s basically everyone isn’t a Jr. Why did this happen? Well, someone expelled an innocent person, thus guild lock-down became. The innocent person is back in the guild, but we still haven’t figured out who expelled her, It looks as thought BeyondCrazy might never have Jrs for a long time. ._. And there’s the story. =O
But, in the end out of all of the troubles it has gotten into, it has 50 members, a sign saying that it will live on. Some people left for stupid reasons, or sometimes no reason at all. But it looks like the good guys came out on top again. >=D
But I gotta say. Leading a guild could be stressful. Will the most stressful is handling a bad situation and people always friggin’ BEGGING TO BE A JR . . . >=O Thus ends my story/rant. =D
Basically. . . . You did the right thing. =O Continue doing that, and your guild will be in peace. . . . Hopefully. ._.
EDIT: Lmao. I just contradicted myself. =D
Right.
I’ve been trying to revive my best friend’s guild. [Well, MS best friend.]
And the problem is?
I can’t understand them.
Vice versa.
>__>
Apart from the occasional ‘Hi’ and ‘brb’, people won’t actually notice that there was anyone else online.
-Cries in a dark corner-
Thats the problems with Guild Leaders. They come, they go, they go for a little while, they have alot of stress with them. I dont agree how you approached this matter, but I dont hate you for this. I am starting to get serious arent I?
~Burning Soul
~Burning Soul”
Not to be condescending or anything, but I think you’re wrong. Ever since I started MS (almost as soon as beta ended) I’ve been on every day, chattin’ it up with my buddies, and when I created Reign, I was active in guild, too. The only times I’m inactive are when my computer breaks, and when it had it’s serious 3 month one, it also happened to be a week after my uncle died, so I had been depressed. Thus, it was two wrong things at the same time that led to all of my guild/friends thinking I did away with myself.
I even remember getting a comment from one member who left during the 3 month computer break saying “Wow! Finally a guild where the leader is more active than the members.
” I’m telling the truth here. So I don’t think it was because I “go” too much.
And, also, how would you reccommend I handle it, if it happens again? I don’t wanna do something dumb twice. @_@
Well. My guild leader has the mobile numbers of all her Jrs and some of the more higher ranking members, so that she can call them up and scream into their ears if they did anything wrong. I have yet to pick up a scream call from her; I was smart enough to cut the call when she tried. >D But reports from the other guildies say that their ears fairly died.
I guess the phone number thing also means that we can know what happens to her if her computer breaks or something. There’s also the forums, and MSN to keep in contact with. There was one time I had been in a dispute with some of the guild members (It wasn’t my fault -_-) and a phonecall pretty much settled a lot of crap.
So I guess here’s a tip: Try to get as many ways to keep in contact as you can.
Also. The no nonsense thing: Eona has this interesting and very frank way of handling people. It’s kinda like what you are planning to do: screw with the guild and you’re expelled, behave badly and you’ll get demoted/expelled, if you’re inactive and we don’t hear a peep from you in a month, you’re expelled. . . and it works, so hey, I think you’re on the right track.
You just. . . need a hard enough heart to do it, I think. >< I know I don’t: I hardly expelled anybody in my guild even though I have the power to. -_-
Meh, after my days on World of Warcraft ended abruptly with the cancellation of my babysitting job, I’ve been thinking about creating a channel on Vent so my to-be Jr.’s and I can talk. It’ll only be a few people, so it won’t cost that much.
My one issue, however, is that I’m self concious and way too nice. I hate my own voice (it’s too low for a girl, ) and I’m a pushover when it comes to being strict/mean. I’ll never be a good leader, I guess. @_@
My one issue, however, is that I’m self concious and way too nice. I hate my own voice (it’s too low for a girl, ) and I’m a pushover when it comes to being strict/mean. I’ll never be a good leader, I guess. @_@”
Nooooooo Don’t say that D= You’re doing a great job, keep up the good work! I know Reign will be back up and running in no time
D; Same here~
But I think that if I were a guild leader, I would. . . I dunno what I would’ve done o.O *hugs* ^___^
Just so all of you know, Reign Reborn is going SPLENDIDLY. It’s so much more organized.