As a non-officer, but one who has read through the boards, I should make something apparent that may not have been before. I do not speak for Walkers as a guild, but as one who knows a bit of how we work and am wondering if we either have it worded incorrectly or some folks haven't understood fully. I am not doing this to be an ass, but I think it may be perceived as such, so please don't take it in that light.
We tend here on the public forum to be swamped with applications. Swamped. This actually is a wonderful thing for us as a guild, to be repected by enough people to have that many people applying to us, when all we bring to the table is a good rep and a family, not raid oriented, lifestyle. At the same time, Walkers ranks are very large, many casual players, but we have a good sized roster.
Walkers is not actually taking applications, that is why we don't have an application forum. The way to get in is to have a person who knows you personally, not just in passing, nom you, then two other people that have almost as strong a knowledge of you, and then 10 people who have at least grouped with you once and are willing to aye you. Those three people who nom you, especially the first one, is sort of your guide. If that person does not give you the apps password, YOU SHOULD NOT BE IN CHANNEL. I am not shouting, just making it plain, for both our members and anyone 'apping' that you have an official nominator, and if that person has not said 'Hi, I am the person nominating you, here is the channel, here are our loot rules and here is a few things you should know about Walkers', then you have not made it to the nomination stage. If that is the case, you should not be in the apps channel. If found in the apps channel, it gets people a little weirded out about how you ended up in there.
How DID you end up in there? Many scenarios, I've seen em all. Some apps simply innocently ask, Whats the channel? to a Walkers member, who either doesn't bother to look to see if they have a sponsor, or have seen the name APPING (which doesn't really exist) and assumed they should give apps channel. This is unfortunately incorrect on the parts of our members, and is being addressed. In the mean time, an unsponsored app gets into the channel. And suddenly gets strange looks from people. There are other cases, ranging from misinformation, confusion, to downright sneaking.
In the end, you MUST have a sponsor. Usually they will say, hi, I'm your sponsor. Others will forget, so before you get into the channel, ask whomever is trying to give you the channel info Are you my sponsor?....cause if they aren't, a lot of embarrassment is going to occur on all sides. It simply isn't worth it.
Now, those who don't KNOW anyone from Walkers, you may be saying, well, how the hell do I get in? Unfortunately, its a harder road, and one I personally wouldn't want to have to trod. The guild is large, any new person is a wildcard. We simply don't know who you are. You could be a wonderful human being, as most cases are, or you may be a total psychopath, as some cases have been. We aren't actively recruiting, but we aren't an iron fortress. It requires at least one person knows you well enough (hell, actually three, but the first person is the most important) Get to know walkers. How? I wish I had a way to tell you. There is no channel (yet, who knows). There is only this message board, and sending tells after a /who all Walkers. And that can be real easy for some people, and not so easy for others. And then there is always the case where someone wnating to get a sponsor goes overboard, understandably so, trying their hardest to make friends and simply trying too hard. And that happens. So eagar it turns folks off. Unfortunately, unsponsored apps is far from a perfect system, but there is nothing really we can do about it. We don't take unsponsored apps, so it may be moot to try. But then again, some of our members in excellent standing have been unsponsored apps, who just happened to stay low key yet find their way into our groups, and then, our hearts. In none of those cases did they have to stand on stage and sing the Michigan Rag.
This post comes from a rather crazy week of people both accidentally and not so accidentally getting into channels, and from months of unsponsored apps asking me, but HOW do I get into Walkers without a sponsor. For all I know, the government of Walkers may find this post offensive and yank it, and if they do, yank with my blessings. I always felt that some things need to be addressed directly, so am, in a non-official capacity, addressing some issues/questions I see. Thanks for taking the time to read to the bottom. Hitting enter without a proofread...=p (THIS IS HOW I TRAIN RAIDS WHEN PULLING)
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