I'm in a mood.

My how-to posts suck. I'm going to stop doing them. They vary between some good info and opinion and then into bare-bones suckage. Frankly, there are a billion how to blogs out there on the mechanics of how to put a guild together. The mechanics are not the issue.

The issue is how to build a guild and NOT SUCK. Work on that part, guys. It doesn't matter if you have the coolest or worst name on the server, it doesn't matter what your tabard looks like, or if your banner was just stolen off a random google image search - what matters is what YOU want from your guild and how you're going after it.

Reputation matters a lot. You cannot police everyone every moment of every day, and there will be things that slip by you. Maybe you're okay with people regarding your guild as made up of a bunch of flaming douches - that's you're prerogative. One of the top raiding guilds on my server is famed for being a bunch of cocks - but that's okay for them. They have a stable group, they get server firsts, and they appear to be having their brand of fun. Okay, then. *I* wouldn't piss on one of them if they were on fire at this point, but they have their scene and it works.

Your mileage will heavily vary. Put it another way: There are guilds formed every day and a great many of them will gain a reputation for being loaded with either noobs (acceptable, you were a noob once, too), or assholes. How will YOU attempt to avoid this?

First thing to accept: You will have to be involved. Hands on. An available presence. Being a good guild leader means, in my opinion, that while some think they spend too much time dealing with the game, you will be spending A LOT of time dealing with the game. Time management vs your real life will be critical, and you can do a lot simply checking emails, posts, and private messages, but fact is, this is a time consuming job.

Yes, job.

It is not always shits and giggles.

If you don't like responsibility, DITCH YOUR GUILD NOW. We already have two hundred of your kind per server. Eat the bullet.