Creating a guild

[Tiberius Fireskull]

The Early Stages

These stages are very critical to the guild's future. Some guilds will die at this stage, but don't let that scare you! The ones that die are the ones that have Guildmasters that give up. Mates, these are some of the most stressful times for your guild, so be prepared for a bit of stress.

For those of you that need to think of every step as one chunk, with a set beginning and end, I'll give this stage one. This stage begins once you have a set group of loyal members that will likely stay for a very long time, if not forever. This is about when the guild has become stable, and we have people coming into it at a constant rate. Again, this may not exactly fit what your guild has gone through, but I am just placing it into set steps for those that need it.

During these stages, you must be ready for your guild to occasionally be quiet at times. Sometimes, you may be the only person online, or with just one or two others. This is just the way it will likely be for this stage, for most guilds. Again, some guilds will be different. During these early stages, EVERY MEMBER COUNTS. If a guild with 400 people loses a member, eh, big deal. But if your guild of 20 loses one, it hurts a lot more for most people. You have to be emotionally prepared for some of this. This stage is quite stressful for some people. It was for me, and I'm assuming it was for most others.

Every person I recruit leaves my guild! What do I do? First of all, I warned ye :P. However, there are ways to stop this. First of all, avoid Abassa for recruiting. Most of the time, people on Abassa will be guild hoppers. Also, many times if someone leaves their guild for yours just because you have a thought bubble above your head, these people will not stay. As soon as they see another person with a thought bubble above their head, BOOM there out. Something I noticed also. If you guild high level players, they will either be loyal members, or guild hoppers... at least for me. Now, when I go after people that are lower levels, that have not been in a guild before, those people stay. I guilded a girl at level 5, and she is currently level 32, still in my guild.

Also, you want to make sure that you do fun things with your guild. It is early in the stages, so planned events may not work as of yet. Instead, spend time with them. Go raiding Tormenta or plundering ships. Make the bond of friendship build between you all. If these people feel close to you and the guild, they will stay, and further grow the group of loyal members.

Also, people like social guilds. If your guild is still in the early stages, it may not be very social. Instead, make sure that when there ARE people online, that they are really friendly, kind, helpful, and want to spend time with people. This will get people to stay in the guild. Getting people to stay in your guild during this time period is very difficult.

Now, once you have a descent amount of members in your guild, you should make sure that people have to work hard for promotions. Maaaybe early on you can still make veteran rank easy, as this will help make it so people can bring in members to your guild, but with officer, make them work hard. Don't make it so they have had to have been in the guild for a year or something, or you won't have any officers for a while. Make them really work for it. This will also give them something to strive for in the guild. You can still be fairly easy, but no more free promotions.

Rules. Now that you are getting a stable supply of members, its time to whip out some real rules. Its up to you which rules to make, but I will offer some suggestions.

- Respect. Duh, no need to go into that. Make sure that everyone respects everyone.

- Ask before teleporting to guildmates. This makes it so that you don't have people teleporting to others randomly and bugging them.

- Don't steal people's kills. This prevents "rep stealing".

- Be helpful. Self explanatory.

- Ask for permission before taking the wheel of a ship that is not yours. It is the Captain's ship, so you have to respect the fact that they have the right to the wheel.

There are more, but that is just some suggestions of ones you may want to add.

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Ok mates, there is the next part of my guide. Chances are I will add one or two more entries before it is complete. Please post comments!