Quick and dirty more to come later:

Ranks have changed to reflect people's responsibilities more clearly.

Recruit: Nuff said
Lemming: Most inactive players are this rank. You also get this rank while leveling up, or while you're still showing us your raiding committment.
Training Raider: This is for those who have shown and interest in raiding with us, and have been online or showed up to raids in case a spot opened up.  This is also for alts who are gearing up for raiding.
Casual Raider: This rank is for those who can't raid 5 days a week.  The only difference between this and Raider is that I am less harsh on this rank for no shows, or "I don't want to"'s.
Raider: Same as above, but more time to spend on it.  You have more expectation for showing up to raids.
Officer: People in charge, or those who have been an itegral part of the guild.  (I ran out of rank space)
Raid Leader: Nuff said.
Right Hand Man: Special people.
2nd In Command: Mon and Mos's toons.

Recently, during a raid, one of our tanks lamented the fact that he can never read chat with all the spam from Recount, emblem loot, rolling, etc.  Well, this week I have a few solutions for you guys.  One of them includes...addons!  Betcha never woulda guessed that.

DIFFERENT CHAT WINDOWS
The default Blizzard UI allows you to make up to 7 chat windows (6 + the default one).  The best part is that you can choose to a high degree exactly what you want to see in those windows.  You can have a window for all those system and loot messages, one for whispers, one for guild chat, one for trade chat....the list goes on (as long as it can fit into 7 windows).  To do this, right click any chat tab, go to "Settings" and choose what messages you want displayed there.  Its that simple.  You can also change the colors of your messages here too.  I used to use a "Loot" window for my DK that would put all my loot there, along with system messages and the like.  I didn't like it, because I wanted to see loot messages pertaining to me, but not others, and the default doesn't allow that kind of distinction.  So I turned to addons, like any junkie would.

ADDONS
That being said, there are a lot of anti-spam addons that you might like.  Here's my list of must-haves:

Get Off My Lawn! (C or WI) - Blocks messages like emblems looted (except yours), Arcanist Braeden's nagging about Wintergrasp, spam from the WinterTime addon, fail mods (like FailBot or Ensidia Fails), duel message, drinking messages (so-and-so looks tipsy), raid leaves/joins, and a few more.
Spamage Meters (C) - This is a great little addon that compresses the Recount spam into one clickable link that you can open to see details.  Whew!
GreedBeacon (C or WI) - Compresses rolls into a clickable link that you can click to see details.  That way, you can still see that people have rolled, it tells you who won, and if you need to see who needed on that green, you can (Vitalic).
HideLooted (C) - Same as the "Hide emblems" part of Get Off My Lawn, but only for emblems.  Very very very nice.
Failbot Spam (C) - Compresses the fails that are listed during a fight or after a fight into one line.
Damn Craft Spam (C or WI) - Compresses your crafting to one line.  No more "you have created spam" for a million years.
Damn Achievement Spam (C or WI) - Compresses achievements for multiple people in guild into one line.
nDisableLoginSpam (WI) - Self explanatory.
AntiRankSpam (WI) - More for GMs than the regular guildies, but it puts all that demoting/promoting spam into one line.

At a minimum, for raiders, I highly recommend the first two.  if you use the new Curse client, 4.0, I have an addon pack that I can share with you.  Let me know in-game or by PM and I'll shoot it over to you via email.

Welcome to my first weekly post on the website.  I need some regularlity in my life and in the guild's life, so this is the start of it.  Each week I'll be talking about something guild related, and if you have a suggestion for the next week's topic then please, let me know!

As you may or may not know, we've had a lot of irregularity in guild recently, what with real life taking over most of our raid leaders' time and random breaks that people need to take.  Of course, this is all well and good, but at the same time it puts a strain on the guild.  How do we deal with breaks?  This is something I never had to think about before, as breaks were few and far between and usually with people that weren't integral parts of the raid team, but now we are at a point that we cannot progress if we don't take some action.  As it is, we're in the middle of Ulduar this week, and I'm not sure we'll be able to continue without our 2 best raiders.  That all being said, I have some proposals for rules and regulations; as much as I hate rules and such, it seems that we cannot live without them.

- If you leave the guild for any reason (on good terms) you cannot get your old rank back immediately when you return.  As much as this saddens me to do, I need to make sure that people seriously consider their gquit, and don't use it as a way to get some alone time.  I don't think that anyone recently has done this, but I don't want it to happen in the future, and unfortunately I must make everyone follow these rules.  If you leave on good terms you're welcome back in, but at no higher than Veteran rank and you will NOT be included in any raiding teams you were previously included in until you have been back and regularly playing.  There is a twofold reason for this: first to ensure that people take gquit as seriously as it needs to be taken and secondly to keep from punishing others who step up to fill those people's shoes.

- You're only going to be able to gquit twice.  That's it, after that you will not be allowed back in.  This is not a revolving door, a shelter for those who can't find their way elsewhere.  This is not retroactive, so those who have gquit already have a clean slate as of now.  However, the rank rule is retroactive, because there's no reason to restore people to their old rank immediately.  I'm sorry, but as it seems to me, if you gquit for whatever reason, you're alleviating some of your responsibility to the guild, and you should not be rewarded for that.  You wouldn't expect to come back to the same position and pay grade if you left your work for a period of time, and the guild should be no different.  gquit is not the same as dnd or /ignore and should not be treated as such.

MORE RULES THAT CAN RESULT IN YOU BEING REMOVED FROM THE GUILD

  - Lack of participation at level 80 (not retroactive; if you're here now, you'll be here forever unless you leave).  If you don't raid with us, or only log on irregularly, then I'm going to talk to you, let you know that this is a participatory guild and that if you're not here to work with us, you'd probably be better off somewhere else.  This only applies to level 80s, and if you have told me that you want to be here but not raid, that's fine too, I'm definitely okay with you just hanging here, but you need to make sure you tell me.  I want to weed out those who aren't interested in raiding, progressing, or being a part of the guild.  Having 104 members is only cool if they log on and participate.  Participation will be defined as being online, being helpful, raiding, or just conversing.  Basically if I see you regularly, you're probably participating.

  - Inability to follow the rules, or excessive complaining about the rules.  This applies to any and all rules that are appointed.  Discussion about rules, including alternate suggestions is not the same as complaining and won't be considered such.  However, constantly "saying" that you shoud get this piece of gear rather than that person, or that you're not getting what you want, or any other sort of side-of-the-mouth comments designed to jab will NOT be tolerated.  You have been warned.

  - Attitude.  Let's face it, I'm not saying that we're all these awesome people, and we all have attitude, but the kind of attitude I'm talking about is the counter-productive kind, and just your typical attitude.  We all know Nampy's a joker and that I'm high strung, but its pretty obvious when one of us has attitude.  Snapping at someone during a raid after 5 wipes, although not stellar, wouldn't be considered an attitude problem, unless its regular and unapologetic.  Getting along with your guildies is just par for the course, and attitude is a big part of that.  Since attitude is subjective, obviously it would have to be a pretty big attitude problem, or a combination of attitude and other things, to get you kicked for it.  Generally, follow the golden rule: treat other as you wish to be treated.

  - Thievery, lying, deception, etc, etc.  If I find out you've lied to me personally, and idc how innoculous the lie is or what the reason is, I will gkick you and you will not get to come back.  If you steal or otherwise deceive us, you will be kicked.  I am sick of lying, I am sick of finding out the lies after the fact, and I just don't see the reason to lie to me.  So I'm taking the hard road, and if I discover any instance of lying or deceit, you will have one opportunity to explain yourself to me.  That is it, only one.  Lying will not be tolerated anymore, for any reason.  I'm a strong woman, I can handle the truth, no matter what it is, so please respect my wish to be told the truth.

I don't like having rules, but we have to have them because all people don't act the same and I can't expect everyone to react or act the way that I would to a situation.  Normally I would say that there's room for interpretation in these rules, but there cannot be.  I'm going to be recruiting a lot this week, and everyone needs to be on the same page so then when things happen I have the ability to punish without reprecussion.  Until I can get a few more regular people I really trust as Right Hand Men, I will be the one that is enforcing these rules.  Hopefully by next week we'll have a nice network of RHM that can help out.

Once I have RHM I can trust, they will also be responsible for enforcing the above rules.  If a RHM talks to you about something, take them seriously.  If you think they are out of line, or that you aren't getting to tell your side, let me know and we'll all talk about it together.  Remember, you wear our name above your head, and I will not tolerate people who give us a bad name.  We've spent 2 years on this server, and we have a reputation of having level-headed, fun players who know what they are doing, and I'll be good gd'd before I let any of you ruin that for us.

The other reason for this is to give myself some sanity.  You guys may not realize it, but when I get frustrated at myself, the guild, raiding, or what have you, I can't gquit.  Logistically, the GM has to either /gdisband or appoint a new GM before gquitting.  It seems horribly unfair to me that everyone else gets to just gquit when they are having issues and I cannot.  Being a GM is like being a mother; all your responsibility is to the guild/children and you rarely get to think of yourself.  Since I can't gquit, I want you to take gquit a little more seriously to help me when I have to fill your space or explain to people why it happened or just deal with it.  Yes, I don't want you to be here if you're not having fun, but at the same time we all need to learn how to deal with each other in a way; you're never going to get along with every single person so to an extent you'll have to learn to deal with it.  I had to learn to deal with all of you, so please afford me the same respect.  Gquit should be a serious decision, on par with changing jobs or moving to a new house, not something you do then take back later.

Since apparently people don't seem to understand, I'll waste my breath here yet again explaining it, then I can point people here again to read it, then I can explain it to them again, and we can still have this problem since it seems people are just too busy to be bothered to comprehend something.

For our progression on WoWJutsu, we have to have as many guild members as possible in our raid or WoWJutsu considers it a pug and doesn't count it towards our progression.  So when you're all like "but I can just come on <insert toon that isn't in the guild>" that really doesn't help us overall.  If there is no other choice then I will take a pug, of course, but those of you who seem to think that it "helps" us for you to "gear up" somewhere else and "come in and help with the 10s" you're actually hurting us more than you're helping us, so fuck you.  Sorry to be harsh, but I have explained this to people individually, we've had meetings about it, its posted in the forums, and I'm sick to fucking death of explaining it to you.  I am making a new policy: if you leave the guild on a toon for whatever reason, the only way you're coming to raid with us on that non-guild toon is if there is NO OTHER CHOICE, and I mean that there isn't anyone in trade that will fill your spot.  This is the only way I see to nip this in the bud, is to tell you if you leave the guild on a toon to raid with another guild, you're not raiding with us on that toon unless its a last resort.  I am sick of this selfish "I need gear so I'm bailing" attitude; if you want to join a guild that will carry you, more power to you because I'm not willing to carry a bunch of people.  But I'll be good GD'd if you're going to join another guild then fucking raid with us, that's asinine and rude to both guilds.  If you want to raid with us, stay in our guild.  If you don't, gtfo.  Plan and simple.

GUILD MEETING

We had the guild meeting, sorry to have missed some of you that couldn't be there, but I assure you that we only talked about you a little bit.  =)  Basically, we went over the new multiple groups thing and the new loot system.  I shall summarize here:

RAIDING GROUPS

Mageta is a new raid leader, along with Nampy (who has been one) to help schedule some different raids at different times.  Currently, Mag will be doing an earlier 10 man Naxx, while Nampy will be doing a later one.  (I don't know if Nampy is planning on making a late run this week, you'll have to ask him as I cannot plan a late run this week).  This will be a little tough for the first couple of weeks, while we work out scheduling and moving people around so we ask that you please bear with us while we change things up, and make suggestions freely, as long as they are constructive criticism.  How do you know if its constructive?  Well, put yourself in the other person's shoes, would you get pissed off if someone said to you what you're thinking of saying to us?  Then rephrase it.  If you absolutely can't figure out how to rephrase it, then be sure you tell the person you're suggesting it to that you're not meaning to sound like a dick.  If you prefer to be on one team or another for any reason, please let me, Nampy, or Mag know and we'll try to do our best to do so.  Please post your availability in the the forums (use the link at the top or Mag's link at the left - I'll add it here later) so that we can schedule around you.  If you don't post your availability, we don't want to hear "But I can't raid at any of the raid times!"

LOOT SYSTEM

Because we have a lot of new people and new groups, we are going to a new loot system.  We are doing a modified loot count, which goes like this.  Each time you receive a piece of gear for main set, you receive a loot count of +1.  Those with the lowest loot count and the highest rolls win the loot.  For example, Wickedtweek and I both have a loot count of 0 and roll on a caster cloak.  Tweek wins the roll, so he now has a loot count of 1, while I have a loot count of 0.  When a caster ring drops, we both roll again, and Tweek has the highest roll.  However, since he has a loot count of 1, and I have a loot count of 0, I win the cloak.  Loot count resets when a raid resets, are associated with that raid only (Naxx loot count doesn't carry over to EoE) and off set rolls don't count against loot count.  You may choose to roll on a different spec than your current spec, so people who are currently healing can roll on tank gear as their "main set" (healing gear would be "offset" for them) but you must continue to roll on that set the entire raid.

Tier gear is done a little differently.  The loot count for tier gear is seperate than for regular epics, and those who are tanking and healing at that time get precedence on tier gear.  For example, if Nampy is tanking but rolling dps main set, and Mon is dpsing but rolling on healing main set, if tier gear drops, Nampy would get precedence on the tier gear, since he is currently filling the roll of tank, but Mon would not get precedence, since he is not currently filling the role of healing.  If no tanks or healers want the tier piece for their tank/healing sets, then the rolls are open and loot count applies, so Nampy can't get first roll on the tier piece if he's rolling on it for his dps set.  This is very much a work in progress, and we are open to suggestions, comments, concerns.  Simply create a forum for posting and we'll try to work it all out.  We're currently running this loot system in Naxx and Ulduar, and I think this will be the fairest system for all involved.  This also means that your raid leaders and, to some extent, the raid members need to know the gear of their fellow raiders, and I think this is a good thing.  I'm also thinking of making the loot count for tier gear be seperate, as in your regular loot count isn't the same as your tier loot count, which might help people to not sandbag.  Thoughts? 

One important thing to note about sandbagging, or not rolling on things that are a direct upgrade because you want to "save" your loot count for gear from KT/Saph: don't do it.  The raid leaders know who needs what, and if you're rocking a blue trinket and you don't roll on Embrace of the Spider because you want to save your roll to replace your epic off-hand, we'll find out and you'll get a loot count to offset that.  If it is a direct upgrade for you, roll on it.  You might not win it, and you might not win the thing later, so better to be safe than sorry.  I will be very harsh on everyone about this, definitely resulting in adding a loot count to your count and possibly resulting in kicking you from the raid (in extreme cases).  Just don't do it.  If you have a question about an upgrade, ask.  Now, if its only a slight upgrade, you gain a little spellpower and just a little crit chance and you decide not to roll, that is NOT sandbagging.  Obviously we're not going to agonize over every single piece of gear that drops and compare it in detail to all of yours, but we're familiar enough with the gear to know if it is a good upgrade or not.  Look at it this way, if you're sandbagging, you're screwing the guild out of geared people for progression, and you'll be that much further from doing Ulduar.  Is a piece of gear really worth having everyone pissed off at you and not getting to raid with us anymore?

So, in summation:

• When you receive a piece of main set loot, your loot count goes up by 1.
• Winner of a piece of loot is the person with the highest roll and the lowest loot count.
• Off sets don't increase your loot count.
• Toons who are currently tanking/healing get first rolls on tier gear for their tanking/healing sets ONLY.
• If no current tanks/healers need the tier piece, then it is open rolls. (Read my green text above.)
• Sandbagging will not be tolerated and will result in various forms of punishment ranging from increasing your loot count by 1 to kicking you from the raid.

That's pretty much all we talked about at the meeting, so if you have questions, comments, concerns, thoughts, suggestions, whatever, feel free to post in the forums regarding it and we'll do our best to work it out.

We finally downed Flame Leviathan in Ulduar on Tuesday the 9th with the help of our good friends Filanthis and Zaralee, as well as our guildies.  Now the next boss didn't go so well, but that was because we were all rather misinformed, as my good friend Cintae told me.  We'll (hopefully) be attempting XT or Razorscale tonight, but that will depend on who shows up, as it has to be the right group of geared people.

We also have quite and influx of new members, some old friends who FINALLY decided to join us, and others new acquaintences that will soon become new friends.  With new members come increased responsibility for old members in the form of making them feel welcome, running around with them, and letting the officers and leaders know what you think about them.  See some new member of the guild begging for money in trade chat?  Set them straight.  Prot pally running around trying to tank in ret gear?  Ask where they need to go to get tank gear and help them get a group together.  Totally new to the server DK?  Get them into some groups and make them feel welcome.  Remember the number one rule of this guild: treat others as you would like to be treated.  If we don't help them, why should they help us?  We are more than just a place for people to hang out, we are a group of people that enjoy playing this game and making new friends, so don't be shy and make friends with the new people.

The veteran guildies aren't the only ones that have responsibility though, you new members need to make sure that you visit the website regularly (at least once a week), post your raiding availability in the forums, sign up for runs you're invited to, and let us know what you need to be ready for raiding.  We're happy to help you get some gear in heroics or wherever, but its not our job to tell you where to get gear.  There is a forum here that will give you some links to great sites for searching for the gear you need, and you are always welcome to ask guildies about their gear.  Check out the professions link here that will tell you who crafts what in the guild so you can get things made or enchanted or whatever, and be sure you have read and understood our raiding requirements.  Above all, don't be afraid to ask questions!  Communication is key in all walks of life, but especially in WoW where body language and vocal inflection is virtually non-existant (pun definitely intended).

Just for those who have been offline in a while, I'd like to sum up some of the progress we've recently made with regards to raiding.  We have officially cleared Naxx 4 times, and (hopefully) Sunday will be 5 and we can (hopefully) put the Arachnid and Plague Quarters on farm status.  Last week we successfully did Obsidium Sanctum with one drake up, and a repeat performance will be forthcoming next week.  We have also attempted EoE a few times, unsuccessfully, but have gotten further and further each time, so success is on the horizon.  We have also attempted the first boss in Ulduar and got him to 30% on our first try; if we had not had folks who had to switch out for other responsibilities, we would have downed him I have no doubts.

For those of you still offline, we hope to see you back soon, as you fill up our last remaining empty raid spots and with our current core raid group being geared out, we can better help you gear up.  I look forward to the guild being whole again, and swooshing through the content we've barely seen.

If anyone has any game time they would like to donate to offline members, please contact me so I can put you in contact with them.  If you're getting ready to be back online and are interested in raiding with us, please familiarize yourself with our requirements for raiding and make sure you follow them.  As more and more people get back into raiding, my ability to schedule things becomes directly related to how much or little information I'm given regarding availability.  We aren't a "normal" raiding guild, as in we will schedule to your needs (somewhat) and try to accomodate as many people as humanly possible.  As I've said before though, I'm not psychic so I don't know your availability without some sort of information on your part, so do your part to get me that info.

Lastly, although it is not a requirement, I encourage you to create a forum like Mageta and others have done, that summarizes your gear needs and where that gear comes from (there are also forum posts with links to gear searching websites and lists).  This not only familiarizes you with the gear that is available for your class/spec, but also helps raid leaders immensely by giving us a nice centralized location where we can view all these gear requests and perhaps coordinate things a little better.  We are also getting at least one new raid leader, and this would help them be able to plan for your gear drops as well.  For your sake and ours, please consider doing this.

All in all, I have a lot of hopes for the future of raiding in the Daemon Brigade, and with all of your guys' support and assistance, that hope can become a reality.  We've been good to you, and you've been good to us, and that's a relationship that can take us places.

I've been monitoring the GB funds lately, and I notice that the people who use the Guild Bank funds for reparing are rarely the people that donate money to the Guild Bank.  This will change.  If this continues in this fashion, I will be making a new rank, and those who have the decency to donate money to the bank will be the only ones allowed to repair from it.  The revolving door of guild bank repairs is closing; make sure you do your part to keep it open.

I hesitate to make people donate money (we've seen how well that works in the past) but I am not against removing privledges from you if you don't help out.  As it is, people who never raid with us donate money to the guild bank, and those who raid regularly feel like their contribution is worthless.  A guild is only as strong as its weakest member, and right now that is pretty weak.

Nampy is working on a collaboration for running 25 mans, but I assure you you will NOT be included unless you begin to contribute to the guild in more ways than showing up.  This sort of lack of commitment will NOT be tolerated; if you want to be a leech, go to some other guild that has 500 members you can hide behind.

I'm not going to lie, I am considering taking a break from WoW because of the lack of respect, assistance, and general selfishness of nearly everyone when it comes to raids, loot, repairs, and invitations.  I bust my ass to set up these raids, and no one tells me their schedules, then they complain they can't be included because they can't raid at that time.  It is not my responsibility to accomodate your raid times if I don't know what they are.  In another guild you wouldn't even get the option of being accomodated, you would be required to make the raiding times and if you couldn't you would either be gkicked or you would just never raid with them.  This guild's point is to be fun and try to accomodate people when it is possible, but without some assistance from you guys that cannot happen.

I am currently looking for another raid leader to assist my current raid leaders in planning and running raids.  If you would like to be considered for this position, please send me an in-game mail or a PM on the website.  Other forms of communication regarding this will be ignored; don't whisper me about it, don't ask me on messengers, don't email me.  If you don't contact via one of the two ways listed above, then its clear you can't follow directions and there's no point in you being a leader.