[Trilless]

I have started a rather small guild and I have an application that is required by all raiding members..... and naturally one of my members asked why we required an application. We are small, not well known, and wouldn't it turn off some potential people.

I thought my reasoning to him, might help some people who are also wondering....

1 - Everyone who fills out an application is saying they understand the rules we have for raiding, for passing out loot, etc. That means everyone starts on the same footing. It also allows us to "review" with someone what they agreed to if there is any confusion, and hopefully not have to repeat the same loot rules over and over at the start of each raid.

2 - If they are "too lazy" to go to our website to apply, then they are probably "too lazy" to read our guidelines, check the site for scheduled raid times, etc. If you take them in and they haven't been to your site and you ask people to sign up for raids on your site... will they ever actually sign up

3 - The VALUE I place on the applications at this point, is not the same VALUE I place on them in the future when we are raiding more progressed content. Right now, I might take just about anyone, but in the future, I may be more picky. But if everyone in the guild knows that someone has to complete an application, then it doesn't become a "new thing" or "can we just not do it for this one person" issue.

4 - A small part of guild protection - If you bothered to apply, and look at our site and our guild, then you hopefully know in part if we are a good fit for what you want to acheive. If your goal is to be killing Illidan next Sunday, joining my Kara/ZA guild today will not make you happy.

A good example of this was someone that messaged me as a "friend of a new recruit" asking about our guild. They asked me some questions that made me a little concerned about their expectations of my guild. After reading our site while filling out an app, they decided that maybe we weren't the right guild for them.