The Guild of Awesomeness is a casual guild, whose primary focus is having fun together as a group. We take part in PvP, dungeons, quests, and raids, but in a way where the goal is to enjoy playing, not conquer the game in the most ruthless fashion possible. When it comes to rules, and how the guild works, we rely heavily on the "Keep it simple" principle, to allow the most flexibility and least oppression.

Overview:

• Guild Rules
• Guild Ranks
• Guild Bank
• Guild Raids
• Guild Looting Rules

Guild Rules:

• Be nice: Above all, be friendly, helpful and loyal to your guildmates and guild.
• Say Thank You: If someone helps you out, it is always nice to say thanks. (It also benefits you, since it increases the chance you'll get helped again.)
• Don't get mad, get help: Bring disputes and disagreements to the attention of officers or the guild master (Awesomeness). They will do their best to help bring about resolution of differences. 
• Share your good fortune: Put items you don't need, or would like to donate, in the guild bank. If you actually need something that you don't have access to, ask an officer, or Awesomeness.
• Don't be greedy: No charging money or selling items to guild members. There may be minor exceptions, like trading, or asking for help with materials to make something for someone.
• Make new friends: Try to recruit new members that you enjoy playing with to the guild. If you are unable to invite, ask a guildmate that can to invite someone for you (ranks Veteran and up).
• "Need" if you need, but only if you need: When in a group, if you really need an item, feel free to roll "Need" on it. The basic way to tell if you actually need an item is to ask yourself "Do I plan to put this item on right now (or as soon as I get it enchanted or loaded with gems)?" If you plan on wearing it, "Need" away. If not, you probably don't need it, and should hit "Greed". If in doubt, ask, ask, ask!

Guild Rank Structure:

The guild's rank structure is designed to be simple, but reward members that put in extra effort. Some of the rewards include being able to access extra stuff in the guild bank, being able to invite (at rank "Veteran"), and being able to talk in the hidden officer chat (at rank "Captain"). We don't have solid rules for how to rank up (e.g. at a certain level you gain a certain rank), because it limits you as much as helps. In order to gain rank, work hard learning how to play your character as best you can, help others as much as you are able, be friendly and talk in chat, participate as much as you can, and contribute what you know or have to the guild and others. If you do these things, you'll be high-ranking in no time!

• Initiate: Our lowest rank, and the rank of our newest members. You MUST create a guild forums account to be promoted out of Initiate. New members are expected to stay at the Initiate rank for 2 weeks, during which time we get to know them, and they get to know us. They are able to see and talk in guild chat. After two weeks, any Captain or Officer can promote them to Member, after verifying that you have created a guild forums account.
  NOTE: If you feel you've been an initiate too long, and you have created a guild forums account], please bring it up to a Captain, Officer, or to Awesomeness. Send a letter via mail if necessary. Trying to keep track of how long an Initiate has been in the guild is hard. We aren't trying to disrespect you
• Inactive: Anyone in the guild who has not been online for 3 months or more is moved to the Inactive rank. If the character is less than level 20, and has been offline for 3 more months (6 months total), we will assume it was just a trial account, and will remove your account from the guild. If you become active again, we will promote you back to member, which will be done during the promotions period. If a character is lower than level 20, has been inactive for more that 6 months, and does not have a guild note that makes it obvious that they are an active member's alt, then they will be deleted. It's unfortunate to delete people, but we just want to keep some of the trial accounts from filling up the guild roster.
• Member: Our most common rank. Members make up the core of the guild's community, and the majority of its members. Our hope is that Members will eventually aspire to become Veterans, Captains, or Officers, but being a Member of our guild is still an "awesome" place to be. You MUST create a guild forums accountto be promoted to Member.
• Veteran: Our honored, non-leader members. Veterans have earned a place of honor in our guild, for such reasons as having been a member since the beginning or for a very long time, having been former leadership for the guild, bringing honor to the guild through their actions outside the guild, or having become a very achieved player. For this we also give Veterans the ability to invite new members to the guild.
• Captain: Our front-line leadership. These "in the trenches" members are very active, skilled / knowledgable players, that choose to devote extra effort to making sure the guild runs smoothly. A lot of the Captains are given this rank because they are considered "Class Leaders", who are especially knowledgable in their particular character's class/role. They participate in voting to promote members, and advise the Officers and GM.
• Officer: The main guild leadership. Officers maintain order, help make decisions for the guild, and generally help spread the load of keeping the guild on course. Their experience and wisdom is trusted to help the guild, whether it be to settle a dispute between members, or help run a raid.
• Guild Master (GM): Awesomeness.  I started this guild to have a place where people could come together as friends to enjoy WoW. So far we've seen a lot of growth since the handful of our original members, and I owe a lot of it to the great people we have and everyone's cooperation.

Promotions: Promotions are done weekly. The GM, Officers, and Captains get together and review any members up for promotion. If you think someone (or you) may be deserving of a promotion, talk to one of those leaders to make sure they hear your opinion. We can't be everywhere at once, so we value your input.

Guild Bank:

The way our bank works may seem confusing, but is actually quite simple once it's explained. Each tab has a rank and a money amount listed in the tab name, like "MemberUp 5gMax". This tells you that any guild member with the rank "Member" or higher can access the tab, and that the value of the items placed there should not exceed a 5g maximum. As you gain higher ranks in the gulid, not only do you get access to the higher tabs, but you also get the privilege of taking out more items from the lower tabs than you used to be able to when you were a lower rank. For example, a "Member" might be able to take out 2 items per day from tab 2 "MemberUp 5gMax", but a "Veteran" can take out 5 items per day from that same tab. The only exception to this is the last tab, named "Rare Stuff". Items in the last tab are special.  
See the Guild Bank in the WoW Armory.

• 
  Tab 1 - Everyone 1gMax: All ranks, even "Initiate" can access this tab, but the value of the contents should not exceed 1g.
• 
  Tab 2 - MemberUp 5gMax: Those rank "Member" and above can access this tab, but the value of the contents should not exceed 5g.
• 
  Tab 3 - MemberUp 20gMax: Those rank "Member" and above can access this tab, but the value of the contents should not exceed 20g, however a "Member" can take out fewer of these per day than they can from the "MemberUp 5gMax" tab.
• 
  Tab 4 - VeteranUp 20gUp: Those rank "Veteran" and above can access this tab, and the value of the contents should exceed 20g. Sometimes items that are slightly special, but not worth 20g will be put here too (e.g. Fun items like vanity pets, seasonal items like snowballs, special crafted items like "Red Winter Clothes" Santa suit, items that are only useful to high level people or stack in large amounts like "Sunfury Signets" or "Fel Armaments", etc.)
• 
  Tab 5 / Tab 6 - Rare Stuff: Special / expensive things.
  • [Rare Quality] or [Epic Quality] items
  • Truly rare items that are extremely difficult to find regardless of item color/quality
  • Ususually expensive items, over 50g maybe
  • Items that are only slightly expensive alone, but stack in large quantities that nobody would ever need that many of (e.g. a stack of blue quality uncut gems that are 40g each, but nobody should ever need 20 of at one time).

Guild Raids:

Our guild is a casual raiding guild. For those new to WoW, "raiding" is generally defined as participation in the current eng-game content, which exclusively revolves around forming large groups of 10-25 players to progress in especially difficult "raid dungeons".

Using that definition, it should be obvious that raiding is not for everybody. Raiding requires extra time commitment from the raiders for a number of reasons.  

• Raid dungeons can take several days to complete a single instance of, so you hopefully can commit to participating a few hours per night, across several nights. You are locked out from participating in the same raid dungeon with another group, for several days. Playing with the same people also adds greatly to success.
• Raiding requires a level of gear that is much higher than what is required for 5-man dungeons. This can be to quite a severe degree. In order to run the lowest difficulty end-game raid, you should expect to be almost entirely blue-quality gear of maximum level. To run the next raid in progression, you should have a majority of gear from the previous raid dungeon.
• Raiding requires a significant time commitment to your character, outside the raid itself. This commitment involves all the things that do not take place during the raid. This may include having a healthy supply of gold to pay for your repairs and consumable items, reading about ways to improve your character's performance and then testing those ideas, gaining reputation to unlock special rewards or gear, completing quests to obtain keys or attunement in order to enter the dungeon. These are just some of the things you will be required to do in order to participate.

That being said, our general policy is that we will do our best to allow all raid-capable guild members to participate, if they desire. That means that sometimes members will be asked to "sit out", in order to let others get a chance as well. Raiding can also be very difficult, and if your performance hinders the group excessively, you may be asked to not participate until we can help you correct any issues. We want to work together to create the most fun for everyone involved.

Guild Looting Rules:

NOTE: These rules will be changing, as we figure out the details of our new Suicide Kings loot system.

Loot is always a very important subject. After all, we all need to get loot in order to better our characters in order to progress to harder content. We try to keep our looting rules simple, so that they are easy to understand. Because they are simple, there are a lot of special cases they don't cover, but we try to handle these as fairly as possible.

• If you need it, hit the "Need" button, or roll on items linked by the raid's Master Looter. We define "needing" an item as the fact that [if you had gems / enchants for the item right now] you would equip the item right now, and wear it as a normal piece of your character's gear. It can also mean some other similar things, such as if a recipe drops that is for a profession you are currently practicing, have the skill to use, and don't yet know. It certainly DOES NOT mean gear you think looks cool, or has some other interesting visual or cosmetic effect, gear for a talent tree you do not normally use ("off-spec"), gear for another one of your characters ("Alt"), etc.
  
• If you would like the item, and are capable of looting it, hit "Greed" or tell the raid's Master Looter that you are interested in it for reasons other than needing it. When in a group, "Greed" is your most common option used. Please note that some items, such as special recipes, can only actually be looted by players with certain skills, levels, reputation, or other factors.
  
• In raids, it is common for the Raid Leader to set the loot option to "Master Looter", and set the level of loot to "Rare" (blue). What this means is that any time an item of blue quality or better drops, the master looter will have players who need the loot roll, and has the ability to give the loot to that player. This prevents players from stealing, called "ninja'ing", loot by abusing the rolling system.
• Please be respectful of your fellow players. This includes a lot of things. Sometimes you may even be politely asked to let a player have an item that is especially good for them, or that they have been trying hard to get unsuccessfully. You should not feel obligated to let them have it, but you should know that it is in the best interest of everyone, and being generous usually comes back around to help you. You should avoid rolling, and politely pass, on items that are a trivial upgrade for yourself if they are a major upgrade for another player.
• Sometimes special "Bind on Equip" ("BoE") items drop of kills, especially in raids. In fact, many raid bosses have at least one BoE item they are capable of dropping. If you need the item, you should roll "Need" on it, just like any other item. If would like it, roll "Greed". Be aware that it is also common practice for BoE items to be "Need" rolled for the purpose of putting in the guild bank. This helps less-geared players gear up, so that we can accomplish more together.
• When in a "Group Loot" mode, if you have no interest in the items that are dropping, please set it to "Pass on loot" = "Yes" from your character picture. This is also useful if you want to help a group member collect quest items, in combination with the "Free for All" loot mode.
• Whenever possible, if there is a piece of loot that is "Bind on Pickup" ("BoP"), yet nobody can actually use it ("Need" it), if there is an enchanter in the group, we will disenchant the item ("DE" it), and have EVERYONE roll for result. Often the enchanting materials that result from DE'ing high level items are much more valuable than what the item could be sold to a vendor for. NOTE: If, however, there is a piece of gear that you would like, but do not "Need", and would rather have the item instead of the enchanting materials, SAY SO. You should make this very clear, as soon as possible, since once the loot is given to the enchanter or DE'd, there is no way to get it back.
• If you are asked to roll, ROLL ONLY ONCE (using the "/roll" command). Usually we are running special plugins that will record ONLY your first roll anyways, but if you are caught rolling multiple times there may be a punishment.
• You should always roll before opening chests, looting special treasures, or in any other situation where there should be a fair chance for everyone to get the reward. It is VERY IMPOLITE to do otherwise.
• Trust that people in the guild, especially high ranking members, are not trying to steal your loot, or screw you out of it. Sometimes mistakes do happen. On a few occasions pieces of loot have been given to the wrong player, given out too quickly before someone could roll, etc. This wasn't on purpose, and I promise that it is regretted when it happens. Please be understanding.

Everyone's input is important, and I will edit this page to include most recent set of official guild rules. These are just a few I thought of, let's hear what you think.