Knights Of Sparta

Sometimes, people seem to think that moderating forums is about quashing opinions and arguing with people until they stop sharing those opinions.

It is not.

forum |ˈfôrəm|
noun ( pl. fora, Amer. forums )
1. a place, meeting, or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged

moderate |ˈmädəˌrāt|
verb
1. make or become less extreme, intense, rigorous, or violent : [trans.] I shall not moderate my criticism | [as adj.] (moderating) his moderating influence in the army was now needed more than ever.

Forum moderation is just the 'moderation' of discussions within the fora. To make those discussions "less extreme".

As a moderator, I don't care if your opinion doesn't match mine or the guild's in general. I care about the way you choose to share that opinion.

If you present your opinions in a reasonable, polite, and calm fashion, then I may join in the discussion as any guild member with an opinion on the issue is free to do, but I wont 'quash' them in any way, no matter how 'wrong' I feel they are.

If you post your opinion in an argumentative, abusive, ranting fashion, then no matter how 'right' your opinions are I will calm your arguments down.

i.e. I will 'moderate' them.

I will do this by; attempting to post reasonably in response in order to try to calm you down; by asking you to calm down and encouraging you to post in a more considered fashion; or, as a last resort, by editing, locking or deleting your posts and sending you a Private Message to instruct you to try again once you've calmed down.

Unfortunately people who are in a particularly 'passionate' mood, one that would cause them to post in a 'ranting' fashion, tend to see any kind of moderation as censorship.

The strange thing is that usually these people see others (particularly officers) posting similarly 'passionate' opinions in response, and feel they shouldn't be allowed to do so.

The point here is that everyone has the 'right' to voice their opinion on any given subject or issue, provided they do so in a polite, reasonable manner.

As a guild, we welcome constructive criticism, suggestions and ideas. That's how the guild has grown and will continue to grow.

Please, don't confuse 'passionate discussion' with 'closed-off argument', and don't confuse 'moderation' with 'censorship'.

"Opinion sir, can never be moderated. Temper, however, can be, and should be."

I have decided to let people into a secret, this is not likely to curry favour with certain people, but so be it, I can not keep this to myself any longer. Ready? OK, here goes...

World of Warcraft Raiding at Level 80 is.... Just the next set of dungeons.

OMG!!! I'm going to get abducted by the 'Raiding Hardcore' and disappeared, I've spoken aloud their secret shame.

Allow me to explain...

{Cue wibbly wobbly flashback graphics}
A long time ago, back when Level 61 was something only NPCs could dream of, 'Raiding' was something completely and totally different to any other dungeon experience.

In order to get into raids you had to have been L60 for months, worked diligently at your gear to the 'nth' degree and had to have spent lots of time and gold getting 'attuned' to the places you wanted to go.

Then you most likely wouldn't get to go there because you didn't know the 'right' people to get into a 'Raid Guild'. These mystical organisations were made up of 'The Elite', 'The best of the best of the best'. You'd see these players walk into a bar in Stormwind and the place would hush in awe and respect. Among us had truly come 'That which has No-Life™'.

The chances of PUGing a 40 man group were laughable. So to be a 'Raider' was to be something completely different to a Dungeoneer, as much as playing with 39 other people was nothing like playing any other dungeon.
{Cue wibbly wobbly flashback graphics in reverse}

Now, Level 80.

All the people who have gone through their little WoW lives dedicated to 'Raiding' as it used to be. Want Level 80 Raiding to be as 'the old days', a thing for 'The Elite' to be 'A Class Apart'.

But "NO!" Blizzard have said. 'This shall no longer be. All shall be equal. Everybody shall, with the proper application of skill be able to see all of the content.'

And thus they have made Raiding at Level 80... "Just the next set of dungeons."

'How can this be?' I hear you say.

Well, consider. You have worked your way to Level 80 by progressing through the dungeon hierarchy, you know how it works. You do this dungeon until you have the Gear and Level to progress to the next, where you collect Gear and level to progress to the next, so on and so forth.

When you reach Level 80, you progress through the last few L80 Dungeons collecting gear to be able to progress to...

Stop. This is where things get interesting, right here.

This is where Blizzard have been cleverer than most people have realised.

I want to explain this, specifically for all those players that have reached Level 80 and been scared off by the whole idea of 'Raiding', by the scare stories told by all those that want Raiding to be what it used to be.

There are THREE routes through L80 raiding, creating THREE levels of difficulty for progression.

Progression 1, The Hardcore: Normal L80 5man > Heroic L80 5man > Naxx & OS 25man > Ulduar & EoE 25man

Progression 2, The Challenge: Normal L80 5man > Naxx & OS 10man > Ulduar & EoE 10man

Progression 3, The Casual: Normal L80 5man > Heroic L80 5man > Naxx & OS 10man > Ulduar & EoE 10man

So, if you are an 'oldschool' raider you take the first route and it's all nice and difficult and you get to run around with 24 other people.
If you like the 'Raid' difficulty but don't like being in large groups you take the second route.
If you just want to play the raids as though they were the next level of dungeons, just with 10 people instead of 5, you go for the 3rd route.

As a Social Guild, Knights of Sparta have chosen to follow the third path, to treat the L80 Raids as just 'the next level of dungeon'.

So please, if you are a 'Dungeon' Player, don't be afraid of joining raids, don't see our raiders and raiding as being 'A Class Apart' because, trust me, they are not. They are just the next progressive step after Heroics.

The main reason we treat raids differently to other dungeon runs in the guild, is because of 'Raid IDs' which means once you go to a raid you are 'saved' to that instance and will be doomed to only enter that instance forever more, well, until Wednesday morning anyway. So it takes a lot more forward planning.

When you see raids in the Event Calendar, then just view them as being 2 dungeon runs. Don't let it stop you from posting other events. We currently have about 55 members, with 175 characters, 62 of which are Level 80.

I think we should easily be able to encompass more than one event at a time, don't you?

And don't tell anyone I told you

Full clear Nov 2, 2008
Loot: Sonic Spear