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 Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 3:50 pm
The new guild suggestions and advice topic
As I've become the new VC of the guild, I have been able to join the Captain's Guild so I've been talking and looking around there often trying to find ideas to get this guild moving again. I've come across several good ideas and topics and am getting ideas for what to do.
So, in this thread, I'll be posting things that I've found and ideas that I come across. If anyone has any other suggestions or agrees with anything I post, please comment in this thread about it
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 3:52 pm
Advice and Other Articles and Comments WindowOpener Problems:I am not getting requests to join from anyone, and advertising isn't working
Members don't make any posts in the guild once they join
Members make only a couple of posts in the guild once they join, then aren't seen again Many captains are getting caught in a cycle of mass recruiting and advertising, getting no activity from all their new members, and so banning them, then finding they are short on members again so they go out mass recruiting and advertising again, getting no activity from all their new members... and so on. The problem they face is not in how they are recruiting and advertising, or even so much in who they are recruiting into the guild; in this situation, the captain needs to work on improving the content of the guild forum.
 Think of how many guilds are listed on your My Guilds list. You probably have quite a few, since you are a captain of one and you've only gained experience to get to that level by being in other guilds. Your members have other guilds besides yours on their My Guilds lists, too. Some may even captain more than one other guild themselves.
Activity obviously comes from members posting. When they are posting in your forum, it means they are not posting anywhere else. So think of all those other guilds that your members are a part of in addition to yours. What reasons are you giving them to post in your guild, instead of all those other ones? The other guilds are your competitors. You are competing to dominate the attentions of your members. When they log into Gaia, you want your guild to be the first thing on their minds - not some other guild.
So how do you compete for attention? Firstly, you need to stand out. People remember and respond to guilds that can organise events, contents, money games, word games, debates and practically anything else that sparks their interest. Engage with your audience by recognising where your members are coming from and target their interests with topics that they relate with and will be excited to respond to. For example, if your members are largely being recruited from a thread in the Guilds Forum, look to that thread to find out the comments people are making before they join and what they expect to find. If your guild's title has a really effective keyword that always makes it show up first and foremost in the GGN Registry after a search, then you can bet many members are coming to you from there, so you should revise your forum as whole; isolate the title and ask, "What would I expect from a guild with a title like that?" Check to make sure you are offering that. Think of new ways to offer it. Creativity and originality will draw electric responses.
Remember to offer what the members expect to find. Don't get so caught up in thinking of what you want the guild to be that you forget or neglect what the members want. Members will always want some level of general discussion, so try to find the balance between that and focussed topics on themes relevant to the guild. Don't allow bumps or irrelevant polls, but allow topics to wander a bit so that the atmosphere stays relaxed. New ideas come better in a relaxed environment, and your members will be able to explore the things you want them to deeper.
Problems:My guild's forum is too cluttered
Too many duplicate/repeat topics are being posted
Topics are dying too quickly If you're finding you're getting too many repeat/duplicate threads and that threads are dying, the following are the steps you should take. The problem is occurring because members aren't getting the right idea about when a topic is "dead." You need to lead them by posting in those threads even when they slip behind fifth from the top of the forum. Be involved as much as you want your members to be involved. Members respond to leadership by example - not rules.
A lot of captains don't fully appreciate how they are perceived and how that relates to what they post. Many restrict themselves to only posting information and replying to member-made topics.  While posting in the members' topics is the best way to make sure you stay in touch with your community and are a proper part of it, you need to take a leader's role in leading discussion and generating the interest that should exist in the theme you have chosen for your guild to explore. You need to engage your members, because in new guilds members prove over and over again that they are hopelessly inept at engaging themselves. Start the debates, divulge some of your experiences, explain your ideas and views, and give the members plenty of space to discuss what you post, too, and then to add to it in their own way. Get the members to interact better with each other - even if they have the potential to get involved in 5-post-per-minute kinds of exciting discussions and are enthusiastic about getting their views and ideas out into the open, they need to be guided into doing that. Often captains are leaving them to make threads and start discussions themselves. You need to lead them into discussions, start topics of debate and then stay with the members as they get into it. This is how you can improve activity levels. It is a common misconception that by recruiting more members you will gain more posts. Even when you have a full guild to work with and plenty of great people who seem keen to open up and get into the really exciting parts of your theme and to learn from each other by discussing and debating - all that wonderful stuff has nowhere to go if you don't push the GO button. Start ordinary threads yourself, but not too many as this will give the impression that members aren't allowed to make their own. Make only a couple.
You can support the activity level by simply not abandoning threads when you don't have an immediate response in mind to a particular last post or if a thread has just stopped because two people were conversing and one said "Good night, I'm going to bed now." Come on, there's something you can add! There is nothing wrong with chiming into members' conversations and adding your bit, even though you're the leader. You don't expect special treatment because you're the captain - you want to be treated just like one of your members. And the first step to that is posting just like one of your members. Start topics and post in topics. Chime in and be chimed in on. Continue a conversation that has suddenly stopped because someone left - and you'll find that members will automatically pick it up with you. Your goal is make them feel comfortable and at ease. Such an atmosphere makes posting more fun, and thus more rampant.
Guard your guild from becoming too much of a static resource - meaning that it has places to access the information, read it, and then leave. Discussion and interacting is where the guild gets its activity from, so don't post too many threads that members can't really do anything with.
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 4:05 pm
Guild Suggestions and Ideas Ideas (pending review)Ideas (accepted, pending implication)Ideas (implimented)
RP Ideas and Suggestions
Suggestions
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 4:09 pm
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 4:11 pm
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 4:12 pm
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 4:14 pm
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Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 4:23 pm
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