I'm hijacking the latest installment of my sporadic and oft-ignored (:P) series to stress a particular point I and other Officers feel strongly about...
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Why should I use the website to sign up for raids?

Before I argue for that, let's look at the arguments against signing up.

I can't be bothered
This is the worst one out of the way first. I pay around £120 a year (about 140 euros) to maintain this website and everything that goes with it (including my time which is about £20 per hour in my current job). Add on another £50 for the Ventrilo server, and I'm already paying nearly twice what you pay just with your one WoW account. If you can't be bothered to register with the site (a process that takes 60 seconds of your time) then ensure you are logged in (15 seconds per month) and then sign up to a raid (10 seconds each time) then I can't be bothered to pick you.

I can't sign in
Before you sign in, you have to register and then your account has to be activated. Your presence in the guild also has to be checked by the website, and that is a process I perform 2-3 times per week. If you are registered, signed in, and part of an active roster, there is no reason you shouldn't be able to register. If it is an internet / browser (get Firefox!) problem, then contact a Custodian and they can sign you up themselves.

I don't know if I can make it
So, you're ready to raid but aren't sure about when you can get logged in. No worries. The best thing here is to sign up anyway. There's a note you can add to your sign-up that informs us of your problem. You can also cancel your sign-up if you definitely can't make it. All info is useful info, and the raid leader can use that.

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So, we've covered the main reasons against signing up, here's why you should...

Forward planning
That's it really, but it counts for oh-so-much! I would say that those who have lead multiple raids in this guild can be counted on one hand. Maybe it's Anne Boleyn's hand, but it's one nonetheless. So, that's 5-6 people out of 40+ raiders. Around 10-15%. If you look at multiple as meaning more than 5, then half that figure easily. Raid Leading is the most stressful job in the guild, bar none. Running the Guild Bank? A doddle compared with leading a raid. Kicking an abusive player from the guild? Easy Street. Leading a guild of 250+ characters? A cakewalk.

The Raid leader is responsible for the actions of 10 or 25 people, period. You turn up without consumables? Your fault, but it paints a picture of that raid and that raid leader. Not repaired, and it slows the raid down as you hearth, all the while people are waiting and thinking about the RL. Your actions wipe the raid (and this we accept is a consequence of raiding, so I am not saying that wipes shouldn't happen) and the raid leader is the one who gets the stigma attached to them. That's not to say that you won't be remembered for your actions (certainly, we'll remember the unacceptable ones) but your RL also gathers some of your tar. When Raiders get impatient, this all reflects on the RL. It shouldn't, but that's what we accept when we take on the heft role.

The Raid Leader also makes many sacrifices:
- Time out of game (taken from work, rest or play) to prepare for the raid, learning the boss fights, new encounters, balancing raid compositions and feeding back to the Officers and Guild
- Limiting their own raid potential. During fights, I am constantly checking what other people are doing, who they are targetting, who needs healing, who's moving in the fire or standing with the wrong charges. This all reduces my own effectiveness. Hopefully, it doesn't limit it too much, and in fact if everyone is doing the right thing, the impact is minimal.
- Enjoyment of the raid. I have much more constant fun when simply being a Hunter. Granted, no one gets more enjoyment when a raid drops an important boss than the RL, but the peaks don't always make up for the troughs.
- Health. Why should I go to bed stressed because someone hasn't had fun? Why should I fire off emails and forum posts complaining about what happened? See, this post has turned into 'I' rather than 'we' and that's the effect that needless barriers to success have on RLs.

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So, where are we? Well, where we have always been. Expecting those who want to raid as part of a successful, intelligent, mature, happy, fun-loving, caring, casual raiding guild to do their bit. None of the Raid Leaders want to make decrees that if we don't get enough sign-up then we're not going. But if we want to continue to explore new territory (both our own 10-man experience and working with Divine Intervention to visit 25-man content) then we need people to sign up.

1 minute of your time per week, versus all the negatives. You know it makes perfect sense.

Well, GuildOx can help us out. They now have a new filtering, that shows the performance of 10-man guilds (by removing those that have more than 9 25-man achievements).

We are joint 7th as an Alliance guild, and 27th on the server overall.

We like the 10-man runs :D.

http://www.guildox.com/go/g.asp?a=4&s=1&r=Ahn%27Qiraj-EU&w=

So, Keyanomir likes his little bets. And I'm stupid enough to take them. The last wager between us cost him 150g (donated to the GB). The latest one shouldn't cost him as much, but could cost me 600g.

He gets two chars to 80 (from 77 and 50) before I get 6 to 80 (66, 66, 65 and 3 x 60). Each character not at 80 when the first person completes their side of it pays 100g per character.

Side-betting was strongly in favour of the powerlevelling multiboxer (me) but Key feels quite confident in the underdog position. Let's be honest though, 33 levels to my 103 puts him in a strong position. I only have one 80 and he will soon have 2...

Anyways, I'm sure someone can start a side-bets port. I offered 100g that Tom would win. Any takers...? ;)

'We're on a PvP server. PvP gear can be gathered without the help of nine others. Why should I even bother trying to get with 9/24 other, dealing with expensive wipe after wipe in the slim hope that something I want might drop?

Sounds too much like hard work to me. Whay should I raid?'

Views do not necessarily match those of the author. :D

Here are some guild roster statistics for you, correct as of this news post:

Number of guild characters - 262
Number of guild accounts - 118
Number of Officer-ranked characters - 17
Number of Level 80s - 70
Focus of the guild - Levelling, Casual Raiding, Light PvP
Atmosphere - Friendly, Mature and Supportive.
Formed - 3rd July 2007
First entry to Naxx 10 - 7th January
Number of times cleared - Once
Realm Ranking on Naxx 10 - 60th
Number of Alliance Guilds with further progression - 18

Here are some numbers regarding those guilds who have progressed further in the end-game than Old Timers:
Intuition - 112 Level 80s
Réquiem - 143 Level 80s
Blackrock n Roll - 96 Level 80s
Embrace - 72 Level 80s
Vilohemmet - 73 Level 80s
Perfect Imbalance - 70 Level 80s
Ragnarok - 69 Level 80s
Soulbound - 49 Level 80s
Leave Me Alone - 82 Level 80s
Mighty Rising - 108 Level 80s
PaTRiot - 71 Level 80s
Set Sail For Fail - 29 Level 80s
Equipa Suena - 75 Level 80s
YOURE DONE - 5 Level 80s (Functionally disbanded)
HELLFIRE - 4 Level 80s (Functionally disbanded)
PREMADE - 51 Level 80s
AVOID - 57 Level 80s

As you can see, most of them have more level 80s than we do, some have less, but all have progressed further when you measure their achievements versus ours.

Most of our Level 80s are skilled enough to get a place in any one of these guilds, and when you look at the gearing and achievements of individual Level 80s in Old Timers, we have most classes represented in the top 150 of each class on the server. By most measures, we are a great guild.

Yet, there is a big problem within the guild. And this problem is preventing us from being even better. And I'm not talking about better progressed now; I'm talking about being a better guild with respect to what makes us more successful than any of these other guilds...

Selflessness. Altruism. Helping others.

When we started raiding Naxx, we were very quickly leaving more and more raiders on standby. Several months ago, the Officers put in place a proposition to make two raiding groups, with an eye on raiding 25-man content. We wanted our members to see end-game content, and assist others to develop their own gear and leadership skills. This was met on the whole positively, though some did leave because they felt left out. We had enough tanks, dual-spec would help out our shortage of healers, and we never wanted for DPS.

Yet it was largely unsuccessful. Recently, we have struggled to get a second group, and have on occasion, come close to not getting a single 10-man group. A few Officers have asked around as to why those who were raiding have stopped, and the answers were largely two-fold; real-life issues and 'we have all the gear we need from 10-man Naxx'.

The first is perfectly acceptable to us. We are a casual raiding guild, and will not penalise those who would be kicked from other guilds.

The second reason is horrifying to me. It translates to this:

"Hi. Sure, I'll join you for raids. You've all got gear that is beyond Naxx 10 and I haven't. I could sure benefit from your time, skill and support, and it'll help me gear up greatly. However, when the time comes for me to do my bit, I won't do the same. I'll take the time that many of you have given, and won't give any back."

There are some in the guild who think we have grown too large, that we should trim the guild down to those who are close to each other, re-focussing on what makes Old Timers such a great guild to be a part of; mutual respect, friendship and the ability to say 'yes, I'll do that for you'. The other Officers wanted me to be very diplomatic when I wrote this piece. and so I haven't gone so far as to mention names. But here's the crux; the Officers are going to start making notes...

Notes of who helps and who doesn't, notes of who gives and who takes, notes of the selfish and the selfless. And the rewards of being in a great guild will be given to those who help. And refused to those who don't. And this will start with 10-man Naxx. Spots in my groups will be given to those who have given more to the guild than they have taken.

The first Wednesday in June, we will attempt to form a 25-man Naxx group. Sign-ups will come first and foremost from this guild. Those who have shown commitment to 10-man raids even though they may not 'get much' from it will be chosen first. We will then PuG the gaps.

If your mentality is 'I pay, I play' then great. It is simply a game after all. And your venture to find another guild will be blessed by me. But 'I pay, I play' does not fit very well with how I see this guild staying strong. I hope others share my view too. Many others...