Best way to revive a guild

[Sailorcancer2004]

Hi all!

My guilds co captain and myself are trying to spark some life back in our guild (PlayStation Guild). Our activity has gone down the tubes and we've been trying to think of ways to be more active.

We recently tried a banner contest with prizes but had no entries. So we're at a loss at how to rejuvenate it.

Does anyone have suggestions? Thanks!  

[mamarita]

Hi. I know the feeling. With the beginning of the new school year, things may go up and down a bit.

Send out a guild announcement that you want more participation. And why not have a contest based on Playstation games.

Maybe an avatar contest for the best game representation.

Maybe a writing contest- come up with a new concept of a game, or an improvement of a game. And who knows, you might end up sending it to Sony for their developers. I have seen it happen with Technical school students. Now, wouldn't that be amazing!

Banner contests are good, but you have to be pretty good at making banners to that to work, and gamers aren't always that good.  

[Pilotslover]

I like Rita's contest ideas, get people to create something based on Sony Playstation games.

I'd be in there pretty fast with some of my Bioshock drabbles!  

[Madame Royale]

From my experience, contests aren't going to bring anyone in. It might be better to just make an announcement, asking them to be more active in the guild. Maybe you can also ask that they make suggestions on how to make the guild better or what they'd like to see?  

[Sailorcancer2004]

We did put out announcements with the contest. I was hoping that at least some people would post in it saying like "good idea" or something like that.

My thing with sending out announcements for participation was I didn't want to come off sounding needy.

One thing I was kind of thinking of was finding someone to be like a public relations person for the guild. Like someone who might know how to spread the word and knows how to get participation up.  

[Si-Shen]

Aye, the contest was a downer, I know that from my own attempts in the GGB that even things like lotto's only hold temporary interest.

I do like some of mamarita's suggestions, but concidering that the contest thread saw almost no activity, it was a bit depressing.

Just an FYI, I am Sailors Vice-C (also the Captian of the GGB). *waves*  

[Chronos the Mighty]

Yeah my guild is full of ghosts. I just put up the first posts for the year. Its sad when a guild dies entirely, The Boardroom of Evil used to be feared. cry  

[Ebania]

Madame Royale

From my experience, contests aren't going to bring anyone in. It might be better to just make an announcement, asking them to be more active in the guild. Maybe you can also ask that they make suggestions on how to make the guild better or what they'd like to see?

The only danger with the "Please be active again! Please!" approach is that you might actually turn some members away from your guild. I've been in guilds where the captains/vice captains sent so many announcements begging for activity that one day I just snapped and quit their guilds.

With getting members to be active, Sailor, as well as with anything in life where you want people to do something, the approach has to be the same: Make them want to do it. If they don't want to do it, they simply will not. Think of it through the point of view of a member. "I joined because I wanted to or because I was invited to do so. But now that I'm here, why should I be active? What does this guild have to offer that separates it from the majority (if not all) of the guilds on Gaia?"

In your case, it would probably be a strong and active community of gamers. Take advantage of that. If you're going to make a contest, make it worth their while, and the recipe to a good contest is composed of many things, but always has two basics: It has to be easy to join and has to have cool prizes. The prize has to be proportional to (in fact, I would argue that it has to be greater than) the amount of effort that a participant would have to put forth to win it. That is the only way that you will get a level of participation that you're happy with. I have seen it over and over again: The more difficult it is to enter, it doesn't matter if the prize is a date with Daniel Radcliffe or Kim Kardashian: very few people will want to put their time or effort forth into that.

This is all just based on my experience as a crewmember, vice captain, and now captain of the NSTG. There is truth in what I'm telling you not because I'm pompous or cocky -- but because I've seen it in practice and I can tell you that, at least in my guild, it's definitely true. Best of luck. heart  

[mamarita]

Now that we can have interactive chatrooms for guilds, it might be easier = especially for gamers and rp'ers to get activity.. I mean- actually being able to do something WITH people makes it far more interesting, don't you think?  

[Ebania]

mamarita

Now that we can have interactive chatrooms for guilds, it might be easier = especially for gamers and rp'ers to get activity.. I mean- actually being able to do something WITH people makes it far more interesting, don't you think?

For sure! I can't wait to use the feature. smile  

[mamarita]

Ebony the Peacian

mamarita

Now that we can have interactive chatrooms for guilds, it might be easier = especially for gamers and rp'ers to get activity.. I mean- actually being able to do something WITH people makes it far more interesting, don't you think?

For sure! I can't wait to use the feature. smile

I am waiting to find out from Edy how much the new chatrooms are going to cost the guilds and if we can get a guilds a guild-type hall- maybe a gothic ballroom. Something more guild-like  

[Si-Shen]

hmmm? Apparently I missed something while I was away from gaia for a few days O.O  

[Sailorcancer2004]

Si-Shen

hmmm? Apparently I missed something while I was away from gaia for a few days O.O

Same here...  

[Pilotslover]

They haven't pushed anything through yet but they're apparently creating 'guild chat rooms' instead of guild halls (At least that's how it seems).

Not sure how long it'll be 'til they're actually usable.  

[Doctor Aizen]

Truthfully, the guild layout and appearance within it's self may be the issue at hand.

Allot of people believe the more you've got within a guild the more active it'll be when honestly that's not at all the truth behind a successful guild.

Majority rules that simplicity is the safe way to play it when making a guild,

I would devise the forums like such if they have not already been done so.

Use the Lobby for all of your rules, announcements, OOC talk, and the such.

and then go into the Sub_Forums and simply list all of the previous to Current Systems within a Sub Forum.

Playstation
Playstation 2
Playstation 3

And whatever else Playstation is aligned with, then start by naming a couple games in each Sub_Forum and let the discussions begin, Make sure you have a Suggestions thread in the lobby makes it easier to allow guild members to request game forums if they aren't already up for said generation system.