Hi, Pitstarter,
Yes. You are insane but not for the reasons that you probably suspect.
First, anyone who attempts to lead a PUG is insane because of the widely varying expectations and intentions of the group members. Though I think that I am the only person who's ever codified it, the possibility of doing anything decreases geometrically with the number of people actually involved. Just consider the last time that you and a friend or partner tried to decide on a movie to see or rent. Now imagine if you had to get 25 people to agree on the same movie. See what I mean?
But to drop the glibness for a minute, don't worry about extraneous stuff like how your guild or its individual members will look. There are so many factors involved in whether you succeed or fail that there are likely to be 25 different takes on why and how that happened, 24 of which are completely outside your control.
The most important thing is to be generous and still keep your party in line.
Let me suggest a few things you might want to try. Let some of your slower party members set the pace. If you pay attention to the ranged dps who are going to burn through lots of mana, for example, and set your pace to them, you're going to have a better chance of success than if you race off and leave them in the dust. You need the aoe and high damage output so be considerate of that portion of your raid. It may frustrate the gung-ho warriors and death knights but you will all benefit in the end if for no other reason than the casters will appreciate your consideration and give you their best.
Don't let testosterone poisoning kill your raid. I was in a Naxxramas 25 recently where a couple of tanks and wanna-be tanks none of whom could hold aggro for more than a nonosecond decided to prove their virility by pulling everything in sight in each area. The raid wiped 4 times in The Arachnid Quarter, the cream puff segment of Naxx, and dissolved before we got to the Grand Widow.
Also, be careful with your time. Some things you can't control - phone calls, bladder issues, intrusive parents, spouses and siblings - but you can control wasting a lot of time dicking around between boss fights. If you waste a lot of time struggling with vent, chit-chatting and such some of your raid members are going to either run out of play time or simply get bored and leave. Then you have to waste even more time finding replacements. That's a prescription for failure.
If you are the raid leader don't be afraid to boot someone, even your main or off tank for bad behavior or incompetence. If, like the tanks in that raid I mentioned above, someone gets out of hand, assert yourself, warn the player once but after that boot the offender and replace him or her. That will remove a problem and tend to keep the other members in line.
There may be members of your raid who, much like ninja looters, will get a coveted piece of gear from a boss and then leave. Expect that. If it doesn't happen, you're lucky. Just don't spend a lot of time worrying about that person's selfishness. Once you've noted the name so that he's never invited again, move on with a replacement.
Be considerate of the person who's never been in Naxxramas before and, generally, of everyone else too. A raid leader who lets loose a string of invective on the party members after a wipe is going to be left alone wondering where all the rest of those mother$*@&ing noobs went. Respect the players with you and they will respect you. The genuine noobs will learn from watching the fight while they lie dead on the floor. If you wipe that player is going to live a little longer and be a bit more help when you all come back to that boss.
Some people just aren't good at some of the things required in a huge and varied place like Naxxramas. I'm an old, white guy who just can't dance. Heigan gets me everytime. There are other bosses that I shine against, just not Heigan. Don't berate a player just because he or she's not good in a specific kind of fight because he or she may be your MVP later.
Finally, remember that it's a game. Yes, you want the gear and so does every member of your raid but the point is to play the game and cooperate in making the raid a success. The life and death situations are only temporary. You can come back. If you play it right you may be able to come back with these people over and over again until everyone is geared up the yin-yang and ready for Ulduar.
Good luck and have fun.

I'm glad that Paladins have been made into a more balanced class. I just think in some areas they need tweeking still.

I'm just waiting for Warriors to get the same kind of loving. While we used to be the benchmark as tanks, and have in the past been tremendously great at DPS and PvP, I find them a little lacking these days. Not broken, but certainly not complete.

But, in balance, WoW is in the best place it's ever been. Every class is viable, every spec has its role, casuals and hardcores can both do their own thing, PvP has it's own zone and multiple battlegrounds...

Really, the only way is up. The game gets better and better. It's just misty-eyed sentiment that gets in the way sometimes. And no, not everyone is perfect or as good as it used to be (old dungeon design was on the whole far superior, and heroics were actually challenging even when you overgeared the place). But it's better then the days when each class only had one spec worth even considering if you wanted to get into Raiding.

rawr prot pallies ftw i was tanking in BC when we needed spell power to be tanks so i kinda know how you feel bro then that glorious patch came out where i surpassed the MT warrior and stole aggro without even trying i love my pally=)

well good luck to you sir, hope all goes well and you get the items you need to get unhittable set.

I have worked in retail since I was like 16. I now work in a small shoe boutique.. I do not envy you and I certainly don't miss working in a huge retail store anymore.

Also customers are generally dumb.

I'd say staying on farm for heroics is harder :P

This wednesday we went to togc10 with the group that did the insanity run last week. You'd expect smooth kills, right? Wrong.

First, i die on gormok. He was on low health so i told the other tank to tank the mobile worm so the rest (worms + icehowl) was singletanked. Would've still been a kill except somebody ran the wrong way on icehowl. We wiped on 1% left on icehowl.

Next up was jaraxxus. Easiest ever hardmode, right? Nope. 3 people went boom. Once people forgot to dps the portal. Those with legion flames didnt run away, etc

A little yelling and it was all back to normal. We cleared the place with 46 tries left.

It takes some special effort to remind people that getting insanity doesnt make the instance suddenly lol-ez

Grats on all those drops! Think I've gotten 4 tanking drops in total from Trial (grand or normal) so far... But hey!

I know exactly what you mean by making that second kill! It's harder than most imagine (which likely is the reason it is so hard after all...). Good going!

I'm totally paying a visit when I go to Hamburg next time... shame it'll be August 2010 probably.

"Excuse me, could you tell me where I can trade in this token for T10 please?"

"Where can I find Mankrik's Wife?"

No idea... I´ve never been all that well in multi-dimensional theory... But hey... You guys are a bit further in Ulduar hard modes.

We are back to attendance issues... Either way, I'm still very happy. Wish I'd had the nerve to make a screenshot of the achievement.... Next week we'll turn it into a nice clean farm kill! (or so I hope, 2nd kill is always the hardest!)

Finally going better now too...!

A whole floor dedicated solely to underwear. Very interesting indeed.

Angry Aliena!

OMG C&A is still going. That department store died a death back in the lates 90s in England.

I'm there with you man.

Resto Shaman is my main and my soon Pally tank. I couldn't get into Warriors.

I hope you continue to love your Resto Shaman.

Grats on the kill!

I want to hear underwear stories now.

I got some upgrade last night. After an eternity of no drops from anywhere for a shield I've replaced my CoS Shield with the drop from Anub 10. Crazy Cat Lady can suck on it. I also got a gleaming Quel Serrar that very same night ^_^.

My main is a resto shaman and my previous main was a hunter . My primary alt is a tanking druid. So, just proving the prot warrior theory wrong

Good healing is very key. One of the problems with great healing is that raids can be too dependent on them call things early when the perceived great healer is unavailable or down. It is in those moments that another healer gets to shine.

For instance, we were doing 360 pain spike last night. Our premier holy paladin gets a spike a bad time and dies. No fault of anyones. People want to call the attempt and start over. The second string healers answer the call and put out massive healing. We get the achievement.

Awesome Aethely - I got my tribute to mad skill (10man) last night too - 45 attempts left (all 5 wipes to Anubby) - are you sure you're not me in an alternative universe?

Get better soon!!!!!

Chasing stuff just leads to stomach ulchers.

Pick up what you can get during progression. Individual pieces don't have that big an impact that you can say "I can't get past boss X without item Y". Thankfully it hardly works that way.

I chased the turkey slicer ToC5 sword and it didn't change everything apart from me feeling slightly sick when looking at it. Took me 26 runs to get it. Took me 5 second to be utterly sick of the sight of that thing.

I can understand why you love being a healer. I'm in the same boat with you.

In all my years of healing I still have nothing else but a gut feeling when it comes to telling good healers from bad 'uns.

It certainly is not a thankless job. We just are not in the spotlight. And individual screw-ups can be covered by others. But, yeah, we certainly are not in control of the fights. That's a tank's job.