So you have a guild to lead? How you run your guild is up to you as long as members follow the game policies. However, here are some tips written by an experienced guild leader that you might find useful.

Create Guild Rules
Come up with a list of rules for your guild. Make them available to your guild mates via a web page, if possible, or you can pass them out via email. Many common problems can be solved by coming up with rules and making sure everyone is aware of them. As various issues come up, you can simply update the rules as you go. Most people are fine with rules as long as they are public and they can read them. Remember, it's good to make sure your members are aware of the game policies.

Select Good Officers
Select good co-leaders for your guild. These players need to be able to control the guild while you're not around. It's common to select your closest friends for this role but they are not always the best choice. Some good friends don't make good leaders. For the best results you need people who can lead and arbitrate disputes. It really depends on how large your guild is. If your guild is a close group of friends this may not be necessary. However, if you have a large guild with players whom you may not be personal friends with in real life, then you might find good officers are a requirement.

You can create your own ranks and define rank permissions via the guild management controls. This allows you to start officers off with some basic commands. You are then able to reward them with more if they earn them through good leadership.

Reward Good Behavior
Reward good behavior in your guild by increased power. You can create special ranks for your guild that players can earn through whatever deeds you deem necessary. Just as players wish to upgrade their characters, players also wish to improve their status in the guild!

Punish Bad Behavior
You can punish bad behavior in your guild by having a leader talk to the person causing trouble. Remember that a threat to remove them from the guild is always a good way to improve their behavior.Another option is to create special ranks in your guild that are identified as punishment. You can then reduce the permissions for that rank to virtually none (i.e. - unable talk in guild chat). When players have served their punishment you can reinstate their powers by upgrading them back to their previous rank.

Item Disputes
Item disputes are the most common source of conflict in a guild. Sometimes players get greedy and fight over the same item in a party if they both want the item. Create rules, and make them public as to how guild members should respond to this situation. You can also refer them to the guild leaders to help determine what should be done. Otherwise, item disputes can explode into huge fights with people taking sides. A good thing to remember is the "/random" command. You can type "/random 1 100" to generate a random number between 1 and 100. Then whoever gets the highest number wins the item. This is a common method used for determining who gets an item if multiple people want or need that item.

Guild Chat
Guild chat can sometimes get out of hand if you do not manage it. You can tell people in the channel to settle down. You can also demote a bad member in the guild to a level that doesn't allow them to talk in guild chat until they improve their behavior

Inactive Guild Members
You might want to create a policy that removes guild members that are not active in the game. This is up to you. It's not really hurting anything by allowing them to continue to be in the guild, but it doesn't encourage other players in the guild to play. It also takes up room on the guild roster.

Create a Guild Web Site
Most guilds do this. If you don't know how to create a guild web site, find someone or invite someone to your guild who can.

Professions
Sometimes it's better to pick one person for each Profession that is specifically responsible for being the best at that skill. When a bunch of people are doing the same Profession, they compete against each other which doesn't benefit the guild. You will probably want to have some backups just in case the main Profession person is not online.

Let everyone in the guild know what trade skill items and recipes they should collect and whom they should give them to.

If the guild works together its trade skill members the entire guild can benefit.

Hand-me-downs
When you are done with an item, offer it to people in the guild chat channel. Other players might wish to use that item. Meet up with them, and give them the item. This can really improve relations between guild members, as well as assisting the guild as a whole.

Pool Money
If there is something that would be especially helpful to the guild, pool money together from members and buy it. This can allow you to buy things that wouldn't be possible to buy otherwise.

Guild Tabard
Have everyone in the guild contribute to the purchase of the design for the guild tabard. That way you can afford it much sooner. You may also wish to involve the guild in the decision of the design of your guild tabard. Higher-level guild members can also help lower-level members purchase their guild tabard since it is expensive.

Guild Events
Guild members enjoy planned events. Notify members ahead of time when an event is going to happen, and make sure you have strong leaders to run the event. A common event is to attack a specific location with your entire guild. These gatherings also give a chance for players to exchange items for trade skills or give hand-me-down items to lower-level guild members.

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