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 Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:12 pm
Radimir asked me to repost this thread. I found part of it after digging around my hard drive (can't access the version in the CG, sorry!)
I used to run a guild rating service, and this is the criteria I used to assess guilds. I'd investigate these areas, and message the captains with about 1,000 words of feedback, and a number between -50 and +50 which was their 'rating.' The rating was calculated by a super-secret formula which I never wrote down and have since forgotten. smile
I might start offering this service again in the future, but meanwhile, here's the list of things I looked for - I hope it's helpful to some of you. ^^
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Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:14 pm
The Guild Rating SchemeIn finding your guild rating, the following factors are investigated, analysed and evaluated:
Title
A title needs to be accurately descriptive of what the guild is about, or needs some special significance to the community. Also, to aid recruitment, it is a good idea to use key words in the title that will make your guild show up in a search of the GGN Registry for a topic.
Home page
The home page is the place where potential members get their most information about what they will get inside the guild, before they enter. It's important they get a positive first impression, as well as all the facts they expect to see, displayed in a clear, logical, concise way.
Effectiveness in targeting its audience
A guild should be targeted towards a specific audience. Your guild will be evaluated on how well it relates to its audience. For example, if a guild for budding authors or poets has threads dedicated to discussing a new video game, then that is ineffective. Also, if a guild for all newbies has an entire subforum dedicated to Harry Potter, then that is ineffective, too.
Organisation of layout
A guild needs to be organised well so that its members can find what they want quickly. Layouts need to be logical and dead simple. Subforums need to be used effectively and as needed. A guild with ten subforums tends to be hard to navigate, and often many of those will never get visited, or the community will become divided and start posting only in some of them. "Crew Only" subforums are NOT usually a good idea, because they make the normal members feel isolated and that they are perceived as "second class."
Organisation of information
Announcements need to be made clearly, information and resources need to be in clearly-labelled stickies for easy reference, and threads need to be organised into their appropriate subforums, all the time.
Relationships
How well do your members relate to one another? Are there frequent discussions that involve different people, or are there only a handful of regulars who appear at all and tend to make others feel they can't post? Is there a problem with flaming, rudeness, cheating or other unfriendly behaviour? The people of the guild reflect on the kind of community it really is, and it only takes some bad grapes to spoil the whole bunch.
Crew
How well do the Crew relate to the rest of the guild? In this category again, a "Crew Only" subforum generally reflects badly. Also, if some Crew members only ever appear to make announcements, post rules and ban people, then that reflects badly on the relationship between the Crew and the member. The Crew needs to be seen as a body of ordinary members that happen to have additional controls to help maintain the guild - they are not in a class of their own and they need to be as much a part of the community as any other. ("Crew" refers to Captains and Vice Captains, too.)
Identity
A guild identity helps to create a sense of togetherness, while also helping others outside the community to remember you. Similar to the way corporations use a logo or a slogan, and the way football teams use "team colours," any design that is typically associated with your guild can go a long way to raising outside awareness of it, and raising a sense of community on the inside.
Initiatives
Guilds that can organise events, contests, money games, words games and other original ideas, and make them successful by achieving high levels of community involvement, are always successful and achieve higher guild ratings.
Activity
This service calculates your guild's [ post count : member count ] ratio to find the average number of posts made by each member. A higher average indicates higher activity levels. This is more important than simply having lots of members and/or lots of posts. (Since the guild's record of the number of members and posts at the bottom of the home page is often inaccurate, member lists are counted manually. However, posts can't be calculated manually, so the ratio may be slightly inaccurate.)
Originality
Guilds built around original and creative ideas attract more people and are more fun - as long as the guild relates well with theme, relates well with the members and the theme is actually one that interests people.
Existing improvement efforts
How is your guild already trying to improve? Threads for suggestions from members are great as they offer a constant source of advice on where the community wants to go. The leader's job is to take that community from one place to another, and it's a far easier and more fun experience to lead the group where they want to go.
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Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:14 pm
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