Dusk To Dawn (original) (raw)

I was recently pointed at a website called Guildomatic. I've seen a few guilds using it - it's basically a webhost that offers hosting exclusively to WoW guilds, not unlike our own.

There is a free package that includes things like forums, rosters, item links that show what it is when you mouseover it... some pretty neat stuff that we can't get here on the guild blog. Of course, all you get is a subdomain, and a bunch of ads... both of which which kinda make us look like noobs.

$5/month gets us no ads, a raid calendar (!), guild applications/recruitment, and some other stuff. There's another pricing level beyond that which I don't think we'd need to use, as it's more for the hardcore types. DKP and all that. They also offer Ventrilo servers, but we currently have one, courtesy of our dear friend Fooz. <3

I know there was talk earlier of making our own website. This guild blog is kinda nice, but honestly, it's not what people are looking for, it's not (currently) very intuitive, and it's not something that people are using. I don't know that anyone even intends to sign up for LJ who wasn't already.

Our dear Lunati is an accomplished web designer, and I know that she can do better than this EZ-Template nonsense, but... with everyone as stressed and overworked as we all are, there's hardly any sense in putting more time and effort into this website than necessary. With some custom graphic design, our own domain name, and a small monthly fee to remove the ads, we can avoid looking like scrubs, and end up with a decent website with very little time and money spent. I am willing to donate both of these resources to the cause, by the way. I'm not half bad with photoshop, I know a decent domain registrar, and am willing to fork over some of the monthly dough necessary to pay for the "Basic Package".

I am supporting this very strongly because, in my opinion, having these features available to us will improve our guild by quite a bit.

• Improves Morale: With a dedicated website, our guild members may feel like we are competent and professional. And - through the forums - their feelings will be easily heard.
• Improves Communication: Through the Raid Calendar, we can organize awesome events beforehand. Also, with the forums, we can leave messages for our guildmates, and send guild-wide announcements, something that's difficult at best with our current setup.
• Improves Recruiting: Potential recruits may be impressed by a well-made website. Also, with the "guild applications" function, we can pre-screen applicants who choose to use it, and can technically be "recruiting" even when we're not online.

At the least, it's something for us to investigate, I think. I'd like to hear any opinions, either directly, or in the comments here.