Two posts from the archives for your perusal:
My Role and the SanctumofRall.com Social Community
by Foghladha - October 28, 2012
http://www.sanctumofrall.com/discussion/sor_general/post_42186.html
Re: Fraternity of Torment (response #1)
by Foghladha - December 23, 2012
http://www.sanctumofrall.com/discussion/sor_ambassadors/post_42469.html
Yes, both posts are Foghladha. In the first post, he clearly states that he is not the leader of the server; in fact, he goes so far as to say he doesn't want to "decide the course of the SoR server". Therefore, I don't reference these posts out of deference for Fog's leadership*. I point to these posts because they refer back to the beginnings of SoR (give or take 4 months!). Back to when the community was thriving and growing. Back to when we all got along relatively peaceably.
There has been a great deal of discussion lately (not all of it, but a great deal, nonetheless) that I have personally felt is contrary to the ideology expressed in these two early posts. We are Sanctum of Rall. We are not named for some random city or zone in Tyria. We are a community built to honor the memory of a fellow gamer (which is posted clearly at the top of this webpage, in case anyone had forgotten). To quote from the second article linked above:
Sanctum of Rall originally attracted the guilds and players that knew Roger Rall or were inspired by Rall. He was a loving caring man who turned anyone into a necessary troop and made them feel like they belonged even if they were a terrible terrible player. He made everyone feel important... The main core of our server was based off of these casual, friendly, and not so win at all costs players. A lot of us would rather be in last and have a blast than be in first and tear each other apart.
History is cyclical; two years ago, our community was similarly fractured. On the one hand, we had a group of highly-motivated WvW players dedicating to winning every week. On the other hand, we had casual players who primarily stayed in PvE, but who might come to WvW to continue an enjoyable experience with a pre-established group. And we had plenty of people in between. In those two years, we have had our share of triumph, both on and off the battlefield. Let's never forget those times.
This post is not intended as an attack on anyone. It is not an attempt to point a finger at anyone and say "You're doing it wrong". I write this post to remind the community (both old and new players) of our heritage - our roots. We were created to do more than be #1. We were created to provide all players a sense of belonging and importance. Let's all work together to show one another that we value them, even if we may not agree with everything that they say or do.
Thanks to all of you for being a part of Sanctum of Rall. We have had some good times, and we will have more of them in the future. I look forward to playing with each of you soon, whether it's fighting on the battlefield, navigating the labyrinth, delving into Arah, or battling against Mordremoth.
* For the record, I do want to state that I highly value Foghladha and all that he has done for SoR, and I consider him a valued leader of the SoR community. Thanks, Fog!
Member Response:
By: |
  Foghladha.2506
Site Admin of Gaiscioch na Rall
|
Replied On: 10/28/2014 at 10:10 AM
|
Thanks Jeduthun, I have yet to figure out how best to mesh this many personalities without all out war breaking out. It's like trapping a hundred male cats in a room. Running a guild is so much easier. You just pitch a lifestyle and if people don't like it they can leave. Servers on the other hand your on a boat with everyone. Whether you like them or not agree with them or not you still have to be there with them. Trying to mend fences isn't an easy task on this scale.
I hope that those who decide to stay can find that middle ground and work towards a brighter future. I'm going to keep the candle lit for Roger and your all welcome to join me. Just please put patience and forgiveness first and realize that everyone comes from a different walk of life with different perspectives. We all have our strengths and our weaknesses. Once we as a community can see that and accept each other for them that's when we will be united. » Edited on: 2014-10-28 10:12:40
Benjamin Foghladha
Community Manager, SanctumofRall.com
Founder and Activities Director, The Gaiscioch Family [GSCH]
By: |
timmyf.1490
Member of Super Mega Happy Fun Time |
Replied On: 10/28/2014 at 10:26 AM
|
Fog, I'll suggest the same thing to you that I always tell my guild. If you want to build a community, spend time with the same people. Xivor hasn't been at his best lately, but I've spent countless hours with him, so I am willing to forgive some of his faults. I spend a lot of time hanging out with Sscripko, so I understand why he's said some of the things he's said.
I don't ever talk to you, really. You don't participate in our community much.
Now look, I understand that life gets in the way, but I've spent more time IN TOTAL speaking one-on-one with Aleman from VEX, a guild that transferred in just a short time ago, than I've spent speaking with you in the entirety of my time here.
A guild leader's primary responsibility is to his guild. But in a game where we're often expected (or forced) to play with other guilds, it's worth taking the time and making the effort to connect with the other people we'll see around us. I think so, at least. And if you can't do it because you're too busy, you should have somebody else designated to do it.
If I need to talk to GSCH about WvW stuff, who should I speak to? Fog isn't online much. The other familiar faces seem to tag up and run, but they're rarely involved in strategy discussions. I'd probably go to Smitty as he's the guy I've seen/talked to the most. Does he have any real pull, though? It's hard to know.
Now, this could just be because I'm naive and don't understand how to run and manage a large guild. And that's totally possible. But in the end, Sanctum of Rall WvW always had this group of guilds that talked to each other and a couple large guilds which seemed fractured. I've had guild members ask me why GSCH doesn't participate with the rest of us. I never had a good answer.
The clearest sign of all? The "Sanctum of Rall Community" guild missions which ran not on the Sanctum of Rall Teamspeak but on the GSCH Raidcall. There's a lot more to this community than just GSCH. Or at least there was. There may not be in a few more weeks.
My guild will be voting on whether to remain on the server or transfer next week. I'm trying to remain as neutral as possible. If you see MEGA members and want to attempt to convince them to stay, be my guest.
---
Karaoke (Loki | Oaky | Pokey | Smokey | Croaky | Cloaky | Soaky | Gnocchi)
Guild Leader - Super Mega Happy Fun Time [MEGA] - supermegahappyfuntime.com
By: |
Foghladha.2506
Site Admin of Gaiscioch na Rall |
Replied On: 10/28/2014 at 12:28 PM
|
Karaoke,
The clearest sign of all? The "Sanctum of Rall Community" guild missions which ran not on the Sanctum of Rall Teamspeak but on the GSCH Raidcall. There's a lot more to this community than just GSCH. Or at least there was. There may not be in a few more weeks.
Perhaps you should log into teamspeak. The MOTD is:
<12:24:51> -Server meeting at 8:00 EDT every friday night.
-Please do not post SoR teamspeak address unless you are within WVW or hosting a PVE world boss event. This is so other servers do not get this address giving them reason to ddos (take down the server).
--Ferdinand the Bold(sscripko)
I have always been told not to promote in PvE events wide. When we run these events about 25% of our crowd is NOT SOR. We were TOLD not to run events in TS that were open to the public. That is the ONLY reason we have not run these on TS. Saturday after I got the approval to start hosting them there I moved it over to TS. My community runs PUBLIC events, as in anyone from any server can join. If we can not promote our voice comm in zone / map then we will run them in RaidCall to not subject TS to DDOS attacks.
Benjamin Foghladha
Community Manager, SanctumofRall.com
Founder and Activities Director, The Gaiscioch Family [GSCH]
By: |
timmyf.1490
Member of Super Mega Happy Fun Time |
Replied On: 10/28/2014 at 12:39 PM
|
We must disagree on what the words "or hosting a PVE world boss event" mean. The point of the MOTD is that you shouldn't spam our TS address everywhere, not that you can't invite people to it for legitimate events.
At least that's my understanding of things.
---
Karaoke (Loki | Oaky | Pokey | Smokey | Croaky | Cloaky | Soaky | Gnocchi)
Guild Leader - Super Mega Happy Fun Time [MEGA] - supermegahappyfuntime.com
By: |
Foghladha.2506
Site Admin of Gaiscioch na Rall |
Replied On: 10/28/2014 at 12:41 PM
|
I spam our voice information with the macro to get people to join us for the missions events. If I used teamspeak our address would be exposed.
Benjamin Foghladha
Community Manager, SanctumofRall.com
Founder and Activities Director, The Gaiscioch Family [GSCH]
By: |
timmyf.1490
Member of Super Mega Happy Fun Time |
Replied On: 10/28/2014 at 12:48 PM
|
I'm happy to let it go as a difference in the understanding of the English language and the meaning of the word "unless" for the good of the server.
---
Karaoke (Loki | Oaky | Pokey | Smokey | Croaky | Cloaky | Soaky | Gnocchi)
Guild Leader - Super Mega Happy Fun Time [MEGA] - supermegahappyfuntime.com
By: |
Foghladha.2506
Site Admin of Gaiscioch na Rall |
Replied On: 10/28/2014 at 12:59 PM
|
Timmy, now that we have approval to do this I plan on making full use of it. You can look forward to those being on SOR TS... well if I ever get admin back. I can't even create or admin a channel now for it.
Benjamin Foghladha
Community Manager, SanctumofRall.com
Founder and Activities Director, The Gaiscioch Family [GSCH]
By: |
aryvandar.8562
Member of Gaiscioch na Rall |
Replied On: 10/30/2014 at 11:18 AM
|
Just curious and by looking at what the MOTD for TS, most of the community events that Fog runs, are by the very definition not world boss events they are your standard guild missions, am I wrong?
By: |
sscripko.5387
Member of Archangels Haven |
Replied On: 10/30/2014 at 11:52 AM
|
It basically means that don't spam the address all over LA chat. While the vast majority of players won't do anything dumb with the address, I don't want to give the 0.1% of them the invitation to take it down.
I'm not sure how to phrase it correctly, but basically don't be dumb and spam it in LA/DR chat everywhere. Guilds have always been welcome to have their entire memberbase use the TS, whatever the server (and I do see users from other servers who are logged in on a regular basis). The concept is a TS server that guilds who call SOR home can use for all events, WvW or otherwise. I know our dungeon channels are used daily, and we had a team for the ToL using the TS.
I would be spamming it in the actual mission maps (i.e. whereever you are doing rush, etc) and putting it in the guild message for the sor community guild (or GSCH, whatever you are running it on).
Fog, whenever I get back online, I can get you permissions back. I thought I re-added you when I changed the groups around, but apparently not.
------
Archangels Haven [HALO] - WvW Command Team. Purchaser of the Golems. TS Administrator.
By: |
Foghladha.2506
Site Admin of Gaiscioch na Rall |
Replied On: 10/30/2014 at 02:42 PM
|
And thats why we haven't used Teamspeak for these in the past.
Every single event we spam the macro for invites and voice coms in:
- Lions Arch
- Rata Sum
- Divinity's Reach
- Southsun Cove
- Blazeridge Stepps
- Frostgorge Sound
This is how we get so many to our events. I am going to try it this week to omit the voice comm info until they are in guild and see how well that does but a lot of people typically join Voice then ask for the invite to the temp guild.
Benjamin Foghladha
Community Manager, SanctumofRall.com
Founder and Activities Director, The Gaiscioch Family [GSCH]
By: |
sscripko.5387
Member of Archangels Haven |
Replied On: 10/30/2014 at 03:59 PM
|
Really? I know I've been in many of those places before your missions, and I've never seen an announcement. I guess you just get stuck in a different shard than I do. The two other community groups that I have done guild missions with (due to my very odd schedule) just annouce that they are doing them, you get the invite, and then they give you TS info.
------
Archangels Haven [HALO] - WvW Command Team. Purchaser of the Golems. TS Administrator.
By: |
Foghladha.2506
Site Admin of Gaiscioch na Rall |
Replied On: 10/30/2014 at 04:16 PM
|
I usually run through those maps 30 minutes before and 15 minutes before then spend the last 15 msging people already in sorc letting them know about the missions.
Benjamin Foghladha
Community Manager, SanctumofRall.com
Founder and Activities Director, The Gaiscioch Family [GSCH]
| 