The testing of our rules

When I came on board as a raid leader, the first thing I did was sit down with the guild leadership and work on writing up a list of rules that would govern the way we do the casual raiding thing. One of our craftier officers, who has managed people for a living, gave an excellent suggestion during this process. He said that whatever rules we put out for people to look at should also have a requirement attached to them - basically, that anyone who wanted to raid should sign on the thread that they read and agreed to the rules. This brings our few rules into the realm of 'enforceable' and thereby makes them worth having.

Because being casual and raiding is the aim, we had to consider what was important enough to us that we could enforce it without simultaneously shooting ourselves in the foot by disqualifying everyone from raiding within the first few weeks.

Our rules - without the extra paragraph of details - read more like points of what should be common sense (but so often aren't):

1. Raider sign-ups: Raiders must sign up in order to attend raids.
2. Don't accept what you can't make: We hate having to scramble to fill a spot 5 minutes after the raid was supposed to start and you're still not here.
3. Your time is not your own: We shouldn't have to wait on you so show up on time and ready.
4. AFK's kill: Don't AFK every 5 minutes. We have scheduled breaks every hour.
5. Know when to talk and when to not: Are you the Raid Leader? No? Then shut up and let me give the strat.
6. QQ about loot or raid spots will not be tolerated: If loot is all you're here for, go elsewhere.
7. Raiders will not be asked to raid instances they're not ready for: No, we don't want fresh 80's on progression fights.
8. The not very fine print: Say that you agree to this or you don't get to raid with us.

I'm a naturally rude person. You might be able to tell from my paraphrasing of those rules.

When I first posted the rules to the raiding forum I rather thought that there would be some negative feedback about the eighth item. There wasn't much, but the signatures didn't exactly come pouring in. Oddly enough, it was the seventh rule that raised the most hue and cry. Why? Because suddenly there was something people had to do other than hit 80, run a heroic or two, and sign up to be considered for progression raiding. (Progression being Ulduar - this has only been implemented over the past few months.)

Guild leadership decided to go with be.imba.hu for a yardstick rating system to apply to raiders. It seemed like an easy way to get an idea of where people were on getting geared up without having to individually armory each one and then attempt to analyze their gear and gems and enchants. It was also decided that progression raiders should have a rating of 450.00 or greater - not hard to achieve after going through Naxx a time or two. To make a long story short, when the dust finally settled, we lost about five people due to the blatant unfairness of requiring people to be geared for harder encounters.

That was our first test of commitment to our new rules. Now, not even two weeks into actually implementing the rules, I have passed out four reprimands to three different people. One raider is a hairsbreadth away from losing all raiding privileges. And I am struggling alone with what to do about raids that don't have a full complement of sign-ups. Should I start canceling them? Or accept last minute "I'll come's" from people in guild, thereby fostering an environment where people don't sign up because it's not really required? Not helping matters is that I did cancel a raid this week and an officer promptly stepped up to put something last minute together.

There is a fine line between enforcing the rules for the good of the guild and being flexible with some rules, also for the good of the guild. Right now, I am pushing for a probationary period both for new recruits and new raiders. But the bottom line for me is that I would rather go back to being a smaller guild with people who care about what we have going and who care about making it work as a team than in pursuing a path where I have to try to beat 60 other raiders into some semblance of shape. I would rather have a dedicated and tight-knit team of 10 to get through Ulduar and never see it on heroic than to beat my head against people who just want to skate through.

Obviously, it's far too soon to throw in the towel and a guild meeting to discuss raiding schedules has been called. It just seems like every time we act in the interest of making something easier or better, it adds another layer of complexity and another rough mile to stumble over until we find our footing once again.