Blogging About Your Guild

Well as you may or may not be aware Brotherhood of Oblivion has been having its problems, hiccups, road bumps, snafus, etc. And like many guilds we were perhaps a little slow to react. There are an infinite number of fine lines you have to walk when leading a guild in a game. In doing that sometimes you find yourself reacting a little slower than you should, but faster than appropriate and finding the sweet spot is a bitch!

I don’t know that we hit our sweet spot, but there are already a few simple posts reacting to our guild meeting.

But let me take a step back and beat the dead horse by talking about something that’s flooded our little corner of the blogosphere the past few weeks. Several posts already exist right now about blogging publicly about your guild and more are being added every day. One reaction was the creation of a blogging guild called Single Abstract Noun that I’m sure we’re all familiar with if we haven’t already joined*.

Blogging About Your Guild

It’s your blog. Write what you want. Just be prepared to deal with the potential backlash.

This is the message we conveyed at our guild meeting. This is the message I personally believe in.

Contrary to what our blogging mage believes, this point was not brought up initially** because of his blog. Rather this point was brought up…how shall I put this? It was brought up because real people have real feelings. And it apparently became an issue that surfaced behind the scenes and was addressed in an officer meeting. To protect the people and the blogs involved, I will go no further than that.

Now you could argue that I gave away too much. That it’s easy for people to figure this out. And from my perspective, being aware of who and what this revolves around, it is. But from the average reader’s point of view it may or may not.

I am one who believes there’s no point in hiding anything. But…and there’s always a but…there is a proper way in which to do it. I for one do not normally believe in calling people out by name unless I’m willing to deal with the aftermath.

But what if I describe some guild drama that’s prevalent enough that guildies can figure out who and what I’m talking about?

So what? Those guildies already know who those people are and probably already know the situation so what’s really different? Perhaps I’m only adding fuel to the fire by being more verbal about it, yes. And that is one more factor I have to consider when blogging about my guild. But for non-guildies chances are you are not likely to care about the specific who’s who of any drama.

As part of that discussion though, the point was brought up that blogging publicly and addressing negative aspects about your guild makes it look bad.

I disagree.

If written correctly and as long as it doesn’t appear to be a non-stop tirade of drama after drama, I don’t think it makes the guild look bad at all. It makes the guild look real. Any guild out there professing to be drama free is a guild I’d be scared to join. Even social leveling guilds have their level of drama. What’s important is how they deal with that drama.

Beruthiel wrote a great post a while back giving us (Brotherhood of Oblivion) what she calls unsolicited and possibly unwanted advice. To that I say hogwash! What is a rant post except a cry for help and/or understanding?

So blog about your guilds! No one wants to read strats and theorycrafting 24/7! And if you do? Seriously. You need a new hobby. Seek professional help. 😛

*I’ve debated whether to join this guild. On the one hand, I’m sure it’s pretty cool to actually get to talk to a lot of you. On the other hand, I’m a horrible conversationalist with people I don’t know. I’m the guy who doesn’t rock the boat until I’m comfortable knowing full well that everyone will think it’s funny as hell when the others fall out! 😛

**I say initially because obviously afterwards there were discussions about some of his and others’ posts in recent weeks.