The Value of Good Informants

The most useful tool for a leader is not epic or even legendary -- it's information.

In family guilds, where it can be difficult and emotional to gkick (Teo espouses a "no gkick" policy that I expect he'll tell you about in another post), it's useful to keep track of "problem" and even "high maintenance" people.

In conflict management, it's necessary that the people involved in a dispute care about their relationship, whether it's as impersonal as a business relationship or as personal as a marriage. If two people in the middle of an argument do not care about whether they ever speak again, there's more of a problem than you can reasonably be expected to fix.

Now, in a guild, you'll be dealing with people you have official control over and that does give you an edge, but in a family guild, you're still dealing with people who are supposed to have a certain level of respect for each other. Not everyone is going to be BFFs or even get along, but they should try to coexist to the best of their ability.

It can be tricky, however. There are many situations where the reason for conflict isn't remotely close to what people are actually fighting over, and these situations aren't always simple to decipher. Underlying problems often spawn little surface problems that are what everyone sees -- but those surface problems will continue to show up until you get at the source. Like killing a weed: if you just mow over the top part, the roots will remain to grow thicker and stronger.

So the key to finding roots is simple: know what everyone wants. Motives. Why do people do things, and how can you address the why? Because why is a catalyst, and only addressing the result will mean that you will always have small messes to clean up.

This is why you need good information from as many sources as possible.

One source is you. I take screenshots of everything. I keep records when I see something that I consider evidence of an underlying problem. I do not screenshot Member A bickering with Member B in a late night raid. Officers tell them to shush, focus, and head back in, and it's dealt with.

I do screenshot Member C asking if anyone wants to come raid the alliance bosses and then telling the (one) person who replies to go start the raid. Or Member D in party chat ignoring the word "no" or saying that he wants a friend to quit WoW so he can inherit the guy's money. Or Member F acting with unseemly greed in a group.

The other source is friends. When a former member privately told a friend of mine about thoughts of gquitting, my friend told his roommate.

Who was the current guild leader.

That member didn't know that they were roommates, but it gave the leadership a heads up when that person did, in fact, leave a few weeks later. We were prepared.

(In a family guild, secrets do get passed around. I tell my husband everything, sometimes I ask my brother and his wife for advice. Other people do the same -- it's natural to tell spouses, siblings, and roommates what's going on in the guild, and . . . it can easily filter back to the officers. Because it often happens that officers in a family guild have a decent web of connections.)

Why keep records?

Having records is not so you can approach everyone and go "Oh, look, you broke code 9583 at 3am on a Saturday morning" (I had teachers who did that to me once, trotting out all my misdemeanors in a student-teacher conference -- I quit the class).

You keep records because, if you know a person's history, you begin to see trends. You begin to understand them and their reactions to things. It is preventative. And, yes, it is also good for evidence against people you might have to gkick or fail on their trial membership -- but that evidence is for the guild as an explanation if they demand one, not for an exhibition. It helps, when people don't understand why someone is removed, if you can offer proof and exact reasoning. It's important to your reputation as a leader that you're reasonable, that you never kick over hearsay or misdemeanors or even give the impression that you would.

Keeping the Secrets

Officers get news through the grapevine -- but most of the time, you'll need to keep that information private. When that member spoke to my friend about gquitting and cited never being promoted to a full member as just one reason, I immediately made a public post: "I'm lazy and if you're not a full member and have been in the guild long enough, just tell me and I'll do it. Your status in the guild panel means very little about your real status."

That was a mistake. The member whispered my friend later with a simple "traitor" and smiley face and was gone in a few weeks. I don't know if his informing (and my ill-advised post) directly contributed to that gquit, but . . . probably.

Therefore, if someone tells you something is going on, and there are only a handful of people who know about it, you keep your trap shut. You protect your informants' relationships by not exposing them. Not just to keep the flow of information coming, but because he's your friend, doing you a favor, and he doesn't deserve to lose reputation over it.

Obviously, if someone is going to do something particularly harmful to the guild, like swiping the gbank, you stop them even if they'll figure out who told. Nobody will blame anyone for squealing to protect the populace.

But if the information isn't going to burn a hole in your guild, if it's just someone who turns out to be a lot less honest than you thought, or a particularly vicious gossip, or even a gquit -- then you stay back and keep an eye on the situation until you have real evidence.

If it's just a secret that someone is keeping, like an illness or relationship or sexual preference, you most definitely keep it to yourself. It's nobody's business. It does help to know about harmless secrets, especially if they might one day spill into the guild, but that's so that you can have a plan in place for handling the surprise/backlash or even grief (in the case of an unexpected death).

But you never act on a private heads-up if it's going to get around that Member Y is a snitch, not unless it's dire. You just keep a closer eye on the brewing problems.

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Beth Blevins is a former officer in In Vino Veritas.

She's a writer, artist and avid blogger.

Beth's been married since her junior year of college.