User:JackBlackserpent/BlackSerpents Guild Charter

= The Black Serpents Guild Charter = The Black Serpents guild was created in the spirit of the original Wrath Of The Fallen Order philosophy of fair play, co-operation and enjoyment of Guild Wars without pressure.

In order to ensure that everyone has a good time, and so that there is no ambiguity as to the guild's policy or attitudes, this is a statement of the rules and their consequences.

Penalties
The Black Serpents guild operates a "three strikes" policy; this means that the first time you break the rules you get a polite warning, the second time you get a harsher warning, and the third time you are removed from the guild roster. For lesser complaints it won't so much be an "official" warning as just a friendly chat, but for the harshest rules it's three strikes - and you're out.

1. Swearing
"Guild members are not allowed to swear in Guild or Alliance chat. Swearing in private messages is allowed, so long as the person your are messaging is not offended."

The reason for this is that certain members of the alliance are of a young age; even though they doubtless know plenty of swear-words, it's not very responsible to turn the air blue around them. Also, it is possible that their parents might enter the room and glance at their chat-window, resulting in trouble for the player and, possibly, the guild as a whole.

2. Spamming
"Guild members are not allowed to spam in Guild or Alliance chat. This applies to both trade spamming ("WTB" or "WTS") and general spamming (constantly filling up the chat window with either repeated or continuous chatter, so that other peoples' chat scrolls up before anyone can read it)."

For a start there's no point in spamming trade-chat, since most of the time guild and alliance mates will happily give you what you want for free if you ask politely. But regarding the broader category of "general spamming", it's just plain annoying, and the chances are it'll probably earn you more enemies than friends.

3. Bickering
"Guild members are not allowed to argue or bicker extensively in Guild or Alliance chat."

Every now and then, someone's going to rub you the wrong way, or make a statement that you believe is patently untrue. While it's unfair to ask anyone not to defend their point of view, it reflects badly on the guild to see open arguments breaking out in Alliance chat, and it just makes your fellow guildies feel worse if it's on Guild chat. Try and keep any disputes civil and friendly, rather than letting things escalate into a war of words or, if you just can't stop arguing, slug it out in private messages.

4. Absence
"Any guild member who is absent from Guild Wars for more than one month WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE will be assumed to be inactive, and kicked without warning from the guild."

This might seem harsh, but it reflects badly on the guild if we have a load of inactive members cluttering up the place. After one month of no-contact, it's reasonable to assume the member in question is unlikely to be coming back, at least for a while; whether they've found a new game or have been stopped from using the computer, or - more seriously - they've broken Arenanet rules and had their account banned, the chances are that if they're not back within one month they probably never will be.

The exception to this rule is, of course, if the member has some real-life issues - perhaps they have a personal emergency to attend to, their PC has died, their internet connection has been cut off or something has happened which is similarly beyond their control; with any luck they'll be able to let us know before they disappear, or failing that, if they explain their situation upon their return one of the officers will happily re-invite them. Being booted for absence is not as final as being kicked for an offence - it is simply to keep the guild roster full of active members rather than long-departed ones.

5. Other Unpleasant Behaviour
"If a guild member displays behaviour which other guild or alliance members find offensive or unpleasant, they will be subject to the penalties listed above - they will have their behaviour explained to them by an officer and given a chance to explain themselves, followed by a stronger reprimand, followed by expulsion from the guild."

Basically, if anyone in the guild does anything which rubs people the wrong way that isn't covered in the above policies, the officers reserve the right to talk it over with the offending member and listen to their side of the story, while explaining why their behaviour is such a problem. If it happens a second time the member will get a bit more of an ear-bashing, and finally if they still persist they will be kicked (according to the three-strikes policy outlined above). This gives the offending member the chance to explain themselves in the first instance, and gives them a reasonable chance to mend their ways. While we're aware that your officers aren't your parents or your boss, we do have a responsibility to the rest of the guild and the alliance as well as to each member personally, and if someone's setting the cat among the pigeons it's up to us to make sure everyone else's enjoyment of the game isn't being spoiled by one bad apple.

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