Guild Site + Vent help

[Sallen]

Me and a friend has decided to leave our current guild due to them going down to 10man raiding and we prefer 25mans. So we thought we would make our own raiding guild. I've been looking into making guild forums and setting up vent but it seems a bit daunting.
How should i go about this? i've tried using Guildomatic : World of Warcraft Guild Hosting and it seems ok but im on a very tight budget and if i want the dkp part or even a vent server, it is going to end up being quite costly. Having vent is a requirement but i dont know the best(read cheapest hehe) way to go about this.
How do you manage you guild sites? is it generally more costly the i imagined to run a guild? I think i was naive in think i could do it all for free

in shot im looking for

-forums
-calender (unless the blizz 1 is good enough)
- vent
-cheap as possible

thanks for your time

[Sangi]

For vent hosting I am using Darkstar LLC. I really haven't had any issues with them. We had one incident of laggy servers and I was able to move the location of the vent server though their website and it resolved it immediately. They run about $20 for a 50 person vent sever per month. I also believe they offer web site hosting for a minor additional fee, though ours is through a different provider just due to the fact that we had that provider first then got the vent sever. I don't know how this compares to the prices of guildomatic or not.

For forums and website info I use phpBB3 for forums with the portal mod for the front page. Both of these are free and relatively easy to configure if you have some basic computer knowledge. I just updated the site to these and you can find it here (wanted to show off). But I have website building and programming experience so some of the bells and whistles that you see there are custom made.

If you are not comfortable with editing HTML pages by hand I would really suggest going with a pre-made site such as guildomatic. It will save you a lot of time and headaches.

[Porcini]

Another free forum you might want to consider is Simple Machines - it has a number of advantages over phpbb3 such as lower load times, and Ajax posting (similar to the quick reply feature on Tankspot's forums).

[Krashtork]

The brand spanking new in game calendar is by far the best possible system for calendar raid set up. No need to prod people into DL'ing addons.

[Fayre]

The only big downside to the ingame calendar is that it currently only supports up to 100 invitees per event - depending on the size of your guild, that may be a problem.

[Sangi]

It also doesn't allow you to setup an open invite. Basically declare an event and then ask guild members to signup.

[uruloki]

step by step (to us programming illiterates) how would i go around to making a website with these tools provided? been reading into the simple machines thing. its nice, but i have no idea how to make a website with them.

[Ceravantes]

Your better off using the FAQ's and tutorials they have available on their site. Generally, you will open up some sort of admin tool, and select a few settings. There are generally always a few default skins you can choose from. Honestly, these big hosting sites dumb it down so much it is kind of hard to not understand it.

[Millet]

The brand spanking new in game calendar is by far the best possible system for calendar raid set up. No need to prod people into DL'ing addons.

I would not agree with you.
-First of all - if you have not invited a person - it will not show him that the event is happening, even if he wouldnt actually come - it is nice to know that your guild is actually organizing something!!
-There is no definition of what role a player who signs up is willing to do, so I have to make sure I know whom to confirm to avoid too much of same type of dps (say if dps shammy from elemental went ench... ) or if someone is willing to respec in case.. It is alright for 10 mans, but 25s might be little downting to make sure you do not get too many melees etc.
-There is no time shown of when person signed up, so this is not an objective way to gather a raid. It is fine if you know that one attended more raids, and other one should get experience aswell - but if people are eaqually active/geared?
-You cannot see Chat when working in callendar!! (or at least I have not found any option to move it)
-Also, would be great if you could do a mass invite for another guild (we do 25mans together with other guild). And I always have to invite another 15+ pleople by writing each of their names.
-If you are inviting members not from your guild and they have funny letters in their names you cannot invite them - means you have to close, add to friends list, then come back to it. Dont forget to save! Or you will loose all the event.

So it is not the greatest tool Blizzard introduced. They should have considered more the most popular addons if they wanted to substitude them.

Thinkin of many incoming patches people start to become reluctant to install addons for signing up, but I will have my our!!!!

[Gaeldar]

guildlaunch.com

[Lizana]

I personaly use WowStead - Free Guild Websites as my host for my guild site and www.instantventrillo.com as my vent provider. Wowstead is free, you can pay to have ad free server at 7 bucks a month and to get a few extra features. They provide Guild Roster, Member Profiles, Private Messaging, Guild Forums, Guild News, Voting, recruiting , and guild Profession pages. They link in with armory and allow your guild roster to be updated by their regular armory scans, so no manually adding members. They have great free templates that you can choose from and allow you to use your own custom content as well. From their site you can also use dkp management tools, and even host guild images all for free. Seven Sins - Home - WowStead is my guild site, you can go and see the basics of it. For DKP management we use gsDKP BETA v1.16.1 - World of Warcraft (Wow) FREE Raid & DKP Manager just because we like the way it displays better. It is free as well

And for vent, at Instant Ventrilo Servers | Ventrilo Server Hosting - Premium Ventrilo Server Hosting! - Ventrilo Server Support we pay 11.70 a month for a 30 man vent server. They allow you full control over vent and have 24/7 live chat if you ever have problems.

Now my favorite part of both Instant Ventrilo Servers | Ventrilo Server Hosting - Premium Ventrilo Server Hosting! - Ventrilo Server Support and wowstead is they allow your members of the guild to help support the cost. Members can pay both strait to Instant Ventrilo Servers | Ventrilo Server Hosting - Premium Ventrilo Server Hosting! - Ventrilo Server Support or wowstead for the maintenance/monthly fees without first having to send a GM that they dont know money by paypal or by mail, not knowing what the money is realty going for.

[leesdog]

I know I am late on this but I just saw it. I have used guildlaunch, wowstead and guildtag. Guildtag.com is the best I have used. No ads and free hosting. A lot of great and easy customization with new items being added constantly. And phpBB is the best for forums.

[Cookie]

The people who whine about adding names to the calendar list, you do know that you can copy an event and paste it the week later right? So you don't have to keep typing in names again and again. You can copy and paste people's names if they have weird characters in them too.

Just announce events in the guild announcements thingy. And as for keeping track of attendance, download Headcount.

And I don't know, maybe your chat box is right in the middle of your screen if the calendar list is blocking it. or you still play on 800X600 resolution

[candyiz4kidz]

So, I saw this post, and i saw ppl giving you some pretty mediocre answers.

I play a different game called Perfect World International, the main difference is that PWI is free to play, unlike WoW but our needs are pretty much the same.



Wesbite: Instead of paying hosting bills HOST YOUR OWN website.

Ventrilo: Instead of paying for this server HOST YOUR OWN voice chat.



First off, Hosting ur own website is easy and i'll explain how using EHCP a FREE opensource alternative to overpriced control panels.
Secondly, Ventrillo is a hyped up over priced program with awful sound quality, we're gonna switch you to Mumble.


We will need that spare computer in your office closet.

Machine:

500mhz
256mb ram
Wired Ethernet
CD or DVD Drive or Bootable USB Drive.


Checklist:

- One Mediocre PC (or completely brand new pc)
- Ubuntu 10.10 Karmic Koala
- Free Account with DYNDNS.ORG with a FREE Hostname (guildname.dyndns.org or similar name)





Step 1: Install Ubuntu Server and EHCP on the Machine


http://www.howtoforge.com/set-up-ubu...p-dns-ftp-mail <---Tutorial






Step 2: Install ddclient on the machine.

Once logged into the machine with your admin username/pass type...

sudo apt-get install ddclient

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DynamicDNS <--- Tutorial


To reinstall the ddclient type the following command then repeat the original install command above.

sudo apt-get remove --purge ddclient

Step 3: Installing Murmur (Mumble Server App)

Once logged into the machine with your admin username/pass type...

sudo apt-get install mumble-server

sudo dpkg-reconfigure mumble-server

http://mumble.sourceforge.net/Installing_Mumble






Step 4: Forwarding ports on your router

Lots of routers have different ways to do this...

These are the ports you need forwarded to the server machine we've created.

Website requires: Port# 80
Mumble requires: Port# 64738


http://portforward.com/ <---- Tutorial



So now we have a fully functional webserver, and a fully functional voice chat server and a server that updates it's IP address to DynDNS.org, which allows people outside your network to see the server/website.

Screw the hosting companies, they have enough money.

[Bashal]

So, I saw this post, and i saw ppl giving you some pretty mediocre answers.

Great advice if you are a do-it-yourself type, have a spare computer, and don't mind fiddling if something breaks.

[Zelfin]

Just another thought. If you go to the ventrillo webpage and click the "Rent" link it will bring up a list of web sites that are licensed to rent out Ventrillo servers. Using this i found Multiplay.co.uk which i subscribed to a 50 man ventrillo for $8.97/month.

This is out of England of course, but i am cheap and am willing to save the additional $15/month. The server was up and running in less than 5 minutes. Set everything up in less than another 5. Total time spent was about 10 minutes and had a regular ventrillo server.

Overall, my advice, search, look, and find the deals that work for you. They are out there you just may have to spend some time on it.

[Ryoku]

@candyiz4kidz: Personally I would alos love to hoste verything my self, and the technical site is not at all a problem, the problem comes from my ISP (and most in my country) which DO NOT ALLOW for you to host any kind of servers on your private internet connections. So I would add a little warning about that, because if suddenly you are getting an email saying they wan't to cut your internet connection its not really preatty