Guild Charity {OPEN FOR BUSINESS}

[Fushigi na Butterfly]

I was thinking that it would be a good idea to have a guild charity set up in the main Gaia forums. It would serve two purposes: one, it would help new members of the site (it would be for new members only, not people who were questing), and since it would be sponsored by the guild it would help advertise to new members looking to make Christian friends. But I want some feedback on this before I go ahead and jump into something like this.

First off, would everyone be cool with having a guild charity in the main Gaia forums? And secondly, would it be used to donate gold, items, or both to new members? If we were to give away items, I'm thinking there would just be a list of available items and new members could come in and see what they could have. There'd be limits and rules and all that, but for now I'm just tossing ideas around.

The other thing is that this would all be done through the guild mule, A New Creature, so I would have to ask that all donations to the guild from the start of the charity would go to that account rather than directly to the guild.

I'm basically looking to set up a charity thread alot like the Salvation Army of Gaia. What's everyone think?  

[The1UsertoRuleThemALL]

I think that would be great. If this is for all of Gaia that's alot of new members. Are we going to have a set ballance of how much gold we'll give? What about 5,000g? It was a suggestion. Oh! We could set up an adopt a n00b thingy too... then each person would care for that n00b for however long until they could get on their feet. biggrin

 

[A New Creature]

Kinda like a welcome to Gaia complementary amount of gold? -ponders- That could be a good idea. The only thing is that we'd have to either keep alot of gold in the mule account to accomodate for all the new members that came into the thread, or only donate a small amount. And I'm not sure how well the "adopt a newb" idea would work. What exactly do you mean by caring for them?  

[The1UsertoRuleThemALL]

Oh, I see...so gold would have to be in a small amount. The adopt a newb was a thought, more of a volunteer thing. Okay, about the caring thing. Say for instance Tara joins. I greet her and in a sense becomes her guide and referece for Gaia. Help her find what she needs, makes sure that she has someone to talk to not just; I joined... how am I going to make friends? And I can't buy anything. But once they have become accustomed to Gaia she becomes accustumed to Gaia I wouldn't have to care for her anymore, although we could still be friends if we wanted to. neutral

 

[Fushigi na Butterfly]

So like having a personal guide to Gaia? What about gold and items. Since they'd already be getting complimentary gold and free items would the Adopter be obligated to give gold and items to their Newb?  

[Fushigi na Butterfly]

Okay, God knows I love you guys immensely, but you all are so bad about feedback. domokun So! I have decided (since my crew also are bad about checking the subform- I say that out of love heart ) that I'm going to send a survey to get people's opinions in this matter, since I really wanna do it. 3nodding So be checking your inboxes, guys.  

[Fushigi na Butterfly]

I also had an idea about items in the charity. I think items below a certain price should be available for free, but items at a certain price and up should be sold to new members at a discounted price. So there would be the free category and the discount category for items.

Also, going along with a "gift of gold" to welcome new members- perhaps we should limit that to members who have joined within that week (so if they come to the charity within a week of joining Gaia they will get a gift of gold). The only problem is that it might get confusing if they also wish to buy something. Should we then just deduct the price of the item(s) from their gift of gold?  

[Shien no Ryuu]

I responded to the survey, but I'll just post in here too that I think it's a good idea.

How would we pick candidates, though? Or would they have to apply to us first? *shrug*  

[Fushigi na Butterfly]

I'm thinking that anyone who applied would be eligible (so long as they were new to Gaia).  

[[WolfVs.Wolf]]

To tired to look thru all the posts. But where do I sign up?  

[Fushigi na Butterfly]

Haha~ I'm glad to be getting so much positive feedback on this. Once I get the rest of the surveys back (alot of you have been very quick to answer) I'll post the main gist of everyone's thoughts in one post and then we can probably get started. 3nodding  

[[WolfVs.Wolf]]

Fushigi na Butterfly

Haha~ I'm glad to be getting so much positive feedback on this. Once I get the rest of the surveys back (alot of you have been very quick to answer) I'll post the main gist of everyone's thoughts in one post and then we can probably get started. 3nodding

Sounds liek a plan!!!  

[Fushigi na Butterfly]

Okay, so I'm finally getting around to this. I've gotten a good number of the surveys back now (not all, but I haven't gotten anymore in a month or so) so here's the basic gist, and then we can all have some open discussion about the details.

First off, do you think that a guild-sponsored Charity in Gaia's main forums is a good idea, both for helping new site members (anyone with an account older than six months would not be eligible for the charity) and bringing more members to the guild?

Everyone replied with a resounding yes, we should have a charity. Someone suggested putting it in the guild itself since having it in the main Gaia forums would mean we'd need to keep it active enough to be seen on the main pages. You all can feel free to discuss this in this thread. 3nodding

The Charity will give out items through the guild mule. Should the items be sold very cheap (something like Salvation Army) or simply given away, but at a limit (no more than three free items per person, etc.)?

The opinions on this were somewhat split, but from what I could understand, most people thought it would be a much better idea to just sell things for very cheaply rather than simply giving stuff away. Someone suggested selling things that were over a certain price in the Gaia shops for cheap, and then anything that was under that price could just be given away, since they were sold cheaply in the shops. That was also what I was thinking (so there would be two categories people could pick from). As for donating gold through the charity people had some concerns about that (having enough gold to donate, who to donate to, how those people were chosen, people abusing the system using mules, etc.) Again, lets discuss it. 3nodding

Since the Charity will be using the guild mule to handle all transactions, would you be willing to make donations of gold and/or items to help out?

Everyone pretty much said yeah. They wouldn't even need to be spectacular items either- stuff you get in the daily chance or stuff you can't sell on the marketplace or crappy stuff you get in gift boxes, etc. I know I'll be using everything I get in the daily chance for the charity.

So that's basically the sum-up of everyone's thoughts on the issue. Discuss??  

[Mearna]

rolleyes The idea is obviously flawed.

You can't just bribe people to join a guild. They'll join, take the gold, and leave.

Also, if you had a mule, how would the guild members really know that you're using THIER MONEY for good? You could just me taking that gold for yourselves. Which is cheating people out of thier money. How do you expect people to trust you?

It's a bad idea, really.  

[Fushigi na Butterfly]

You misunderstand. It wouldn't be paying or bribing people to join the guild; it would just be a charity sponsored by the guild, using guild funds in the mule. Also, as far as I know, I haven't done anything to think me untrustworthy with the guild's funds. I only use the mule for the guild (either to donate in order to buy a new subforum) and for birthday donations (where else would we get the gold from?). I sometimes pay the mule using my main account, just to boost the funds a little, others sometimes donate, and I use it to get the daily chance gold. For the most part, the money in the mule has been earned by myself.

If anyone else feels it is a suspicious idea, I'll start posting a regular ledger of the guild mule funds. 3nodding