A Big Ol' Guild Announcement Post
 

There have been a few decisions on high recently that require us to make a little post - this one here - to let you all know about some changes around the place, both relating to our rules as well as some new "features" we are bringing in.

Changes to the Animosity Inactive Member Policy

We will now be asking that all members log on to the forums once every 14 days. We will also be extending the once every 14 days rule to our vent server as well. The new policy will be phased in starting on 1st March 2010 and will effect members differently.

Those who are full members prior to 1st March

Full members prior to the above date will be expected to log onto the forums and vent once every 14 days. A number of factors will be used to judge your activity, so it is best to make sure you are actually active as opposed to just logging in and out again. Assessment will work as follows:

1. A guild wide activity check will be undertaken on 15th March 2010
2. Those members found to be inactive on either the forums OR vent will be sent a warning message
3. A guild wide activity check will be undertaken on 29th March 2010
4. Those members found to be inactive on either the forums OR vent will have their forum permissions removed and will have to provide a reason for inactivity if they wish to reacquire member status
5. After the system has been phased in - from the 29th March onwards - members will receive one warning for inactivity for their first offence and will be flagged as inactive for their second

It is worth noting that we will not accept increased forum activity to make up for a lack of vent activity, or vice versa. Members who have their permissions revoked will go through the same two week trial that all inactive members go through on return; failure to pass this trial will result in total expulsion from the guild, with the need to reapply if you wish to return. Also be aware that we may chose to withdraw the first offence warning at some point in the future. Members will be given at least 1 weeks notice prior to this happening and all activity checks will be reset.

Those who are not full members prior to 1st March

This group includes all applicants and members on trial, regardless of whether your trial began on or before 1st March. The trial period will still be 30 days long and you will be required to log on to Vent during this period as often as you can in order for us to register you to the server. You will also be expected to maintain a high level of activity to prove to us that you are going to be an active and rewarding member of this guild. The Trial process will work as follows:

1. You will be placed on trial once a Division Leader or Guild Leader is happy with your application
2. Your membership within the guild will be assessed after your 30 day trial
3. If you are made a full member you will be expected to abide by the 14 day activity rule as outlined above

It is worth noting that we do not have a set list of criteria for our trial members to tick off. We encourage our trials to decide themselves what they think activity is. However we can tell you that logging on to vent and the forums once or twice over your 30 day trial period will result in your application being declined.

Declaring Inactivity

We are aware that under certain circumstances members will need to take a period of greater than 14 days out of active participation with the guild. As such we have - and have always had - an area for the deceleration of inactivity. If you wish to declare yourself inactive, simply head to that section of the forum and outline why you are going inactive and for how long (guess if you aren't certain). The following is important to note:

1. We will acknowledge inactivity on an individual basis
2. Periods of inactivity should be no longer than 3 months. Anything longer than 3 months will result in the removal of forum permissions
3. Declaring inactivity and not returning on the given date will be monitored. It is your responsibility to update your declaration if you are going to be away for a longer period of time than originally stated
4. Spamming the inactivity thread will NOT be tolerated. If you go on extended periods of inactivity regularly, we will either mark you as inactive or - in certain cases - expel you from the guild

You can find our new Inactivity Policy here. The area to declare your inactivity is located here. When declaring inactivity, please use the form layout provided here.

Changes to the Games of Interest section and FPS/RTS section

We have removed the following games from our GoI section:

• Aion
• Stargate Worlds

We have moved the following games to the RTS/FPS Community section:

• Heroes of Newerth

We have added the following games to our GoI section:

• Mortal Online
• Global Agenda
• World of Warcraft

We have also created a new archive area for older threads and sections that we remove from the main boards. This section is open to every member of the guild but is set to read only.

We will be removing the Call of Duty 4 server information in the very near future and replacing it with Battlefield: Bad Company 2 server information. The Call of Duty 4 server information will no longer work. BC2 is will be the only FPS that Animosity will provide support for upon its release.

This has been created, discussed and signed by:
Dark, Desy, Indelible, Marmz

Lookin' good!

Great initiative guys :)

lol zev, they have been talking about this for a while they just finally made it offical

*golf clap* great post

I dont know about everyone else but i am currently in another guild in wow, and so i spend most of my vent time in there, and i realize i should spend more time on the guild vent but i cannot really use 2 vents at the same time. Uhm i aplaud the change but atm since im only playing wow "untill swtor comes" it gets a bit uninteresting staying in our vent compared to my wow guilds vent atleast when im online in wow :P

just a little shoutout on my priority issues atm :P Damn can't swtor come out already!

I find this a great initiative.. but I am abit worried about the vent part.

I find it also abit wierd. If you are activly playing a game, like EvE or something or a FPS... it is a manditory. But to "force" people who have their own reasons for not joining on vent always.. I dont know if that is a good way to go.

I don't play in any of our MMOs yet, so I'm not sure how the Vent rule will work. I guess I'll pick HoN back up once a week or so to stay active on Vent :P

The whole vent activity is a good idea. It will give us a better perspective of how guild members act in game and give us an opprotunity to get to know more people in the guild.

This isn't a reserve-a-spot guild. If you want to be in this guild, then you need to be apart of it. If logging in to catch up on activities on vent once a fortnight is too much for you, then perhaps you should consider if 'mosity is right for you.

We have always stated, since the formation of Animosity, that vent will play a large part in our organization. As mentioned above, if vent isn't your thing, then again, perhaps you should consider if 'mosity is right for you - as it is now required, period.

As has been pointed out this is something that we have been discussing for a while. It was going to be pushed through in January but some of us didn't like how it was presented back then. This is the final iteration of 3-6 months worth of heated debate and discussion between members, officers and leaders. This has been in the pipeline since before Marmz stepped down.

I do not believe for one second that any of you have any excuse for not being able to find 15-20 minutes every 2 weeks to hop on vent and chat... or even idle. We're not asking you to talk and we're not asking you to participate in the games we play. We realise that a lot of you merely signed up here for the various games we are waiting for as a community and forcing you to participate in any gaming outside of that would be a little unfair. We also realise that you are attached to other guilds and we accept this but that doesn't translate to having no time for this community.

I will just point out that when you all signed up to be a member of this guild you agreed to have a working vent client and headset. How many of you have actually demonstrated that? We've got 120+ active members in this guild. 20-30 of those are active on Vent. That's just not acceptable.

So you have a choice: find some time every 2 weeks to just hop on vent for a brief period of time to be mildly social and contribute to a close knit and growing community that is at its best prior to us entering certain games, or don't hop on vent at all and get placed on the inactive roster.

I don't think that is an unreasonable request. We're not aiming for size here. I'd be happy with 50 active members who know each other fairly well over 120+ moderately active members who have no idea who a lot of the other people in the guild are.