I wanna join your guild /ginvite

WHOA! STOP, DON"T TYPE THAT!  What am I rambling about?

Well, too often as guild manager or an officer for that matter, one might just ginvite anyone that asks and seems descent enough.  But, sadly, you are doing yourself a disservice if you do this.  Why?  Because you are affecting the objective of the guild.

The first thing one should do before inviting a single person into the guild mix is to decide why you are inviting and how they fit into the guild's objectives.  And, finally, you need to be sure that they understand the guild objectives and that the guild objectives are not going to change because they joined.

I'll give my guild as an example.  I have a few objectives.

• Mature (mostly age 25+), younger is okay if you are mature and don't use l33t speak or any such immature behavior.  Acting a little silly and joking is okay, but not immature.  Why?  Because some of the talk in the guild is inappropriate for children.
• Raids from 8-10pm with a STRICT cutoff time.  My guild wants and needs this strictness.  We all work and no one wants red eyes or tired at work.  This is a game not a 2nd life to me.  If you don't fit that mold, you are in the wrong guild.  If you want to keep going on a winning or losing streak past 10pm, sorry.  We are going to bed.
• We raid on specific days.  You can't raid those days, you will be bored and frustrated.

I am sure you have your own lists of objectives.

So, whenever I am interviewing that guy who says, "ooo ooo, can I join your guild, please please plz +++".  Usually the answer is, "no, because you are too eager and you haven't even asked about the guild".   But, if someone shows sincere interest, then I begin a short little discussion with them and explain our objectives and listen to a little be about them to feel them out.  Typically, they will give you clues as to how well they will mesh or not.  For example, one guy says, "I can raid those hours, but I work X-shift so I don't get up until 6pm".  That's a red flag for me, not because he can't raid when we do, but because he will be playing mostly when we are asleep and the only overlap is raid.  He will meet other people and hang out with other people so essentially raid is all he has with us.   As a GM, I want more.

So, just take my advice, think before you type /ginvite!