Gear Leaders versus Guild Leaders

*Warning Contains Mature Language*
If you are offended by mature topics feel free to skip this post. If not, read on but you have been warned and cannot take offense.

I ran into a highly distasteful situation last night. Was on one of my numerous hunters (I have four spread out between four different realms) and a guildie in this guild admitted to disrespecting another guild and insinuating that he had used pedofila in his insult just because the guild was advertizing on trade chat. I saw the guild he was insulting... yes they were annoyingly spamming trade chat with their messsage, but that gave the other person no right to post such a thing in trade chat. That action also violated the guild charters section on Code of Conduct...

• Members will avoid profanity, obscenities, “spam”, and sexually explicit expressions in public communications.

• Members will avoid making derogatory remarks about others or about race, religion, sexual orientation, or other personal topics.

• Members will be polite and mannerly, giving respect to guildmates, comrades, allies, and authority.

• Members will exhibit self-discipline and show respect to the guild, its members, and its officers by obeying the Rules and the Code of Conduct.

Because in that guild I had no power to do anything other than express my displeasure, I did so to the guild leader himself. The guild leader read the statment and said "in a minute" to my request for a public statement of censure or outright removal of the person... he said in a minute because he was killing something at the time. There were also 2 other officers on at the time the statement was made.

By the time the guild leader got around to it the offender had made a JOKE out of the entire statement, finding it apparently hillarious and the officers and guild leader did NOTHING, because the offender's behavior had not changed one wit nor was the conversation dropped, and then the person logged off and the guild leader shrugged it off as a missed oppurtunity.

This leads into my post... I have found there to be two kinds of leaders in a guild. One that cares more about the gear on their character and protecting it, and one that cares more about their guild and protecting THAT.

I fall into the second catagory. I will let my character DIE to correct such a thing... it would have taken me only as long as finding the offender's name in my guild listing and clicking remove. Five seconds tops. Now, to publically give the person a dressing down might have taken a bit longer and killed me, but I would rather take a repair hit than take a guild reputation hit. Money is unimportant in WoW... extremely easy to make and spend. A guild's reputation is not, once damaged it remains so.

I logged off that character in disgust after watching nothing happen to the offender... not even a post logout kick and mail (which would have been my other option).

I let it rest for the evening and then came back today to see the offender and the guild leader and both the officers on a Kara run together. My jaw litterally dropped when I saw that. So I made a flat public statement saying that I could not be party to a guild whose charter means nothing, and wished them luck and dropped both my characters out of the guild.

Is what I maintain in Damage May Vary so drastically diffrent than everything else out there in WoW? I mean really... how hard is it to RESPECT those you are playing with, obey a charter, and take the moral high road?!

From the DMV Charter:

Members are expected to behave in an honorable manner, to treat one another with courtesy and respect, and to display good Netiquette at all times. Failure to follow the rules listed here may lead to disciplinary action possibly including removal from the Community. [...]

Remember that while playing a game as a part of our Community, what you do reflects on the Community as a whole. Act honorably towards others, even if they act dishonorably towards you. This includes acting honorably towards those of opposing factions and those that would "grief" you. Treat others with respect and you will earn the respect of others.

And this is the second time where my views on what a guild SHOULD be have fallen far short when it comes to other guilds. But then, both of those guilds were Gear Leaders and not Guild Leaders.