Guild members auto kicked and no visibility of guild status post Unified Forces

@Justice668

Whilst I can say that it is a bad rap

Regardless if it is a bad policy or not you have to take some responsibility if you where the guild leader and was absent for 30 days or more.

Bioware didn't just spring the auto remove guild leader requirement on you overnight it isn't a technicality it is what occurs when your absent for an extended period.

@EA_Kipling did investigate and found it was as intended by the system and that is a system that has remained unchanged for years per this faq link

If your Guild Leader has not logged in to Star Wars: The Old Republic on their Guild Leader character for an extended period of time (4 weeks or more), the system will automatically remove them as Guild Leader and pass their leadership on to the highest ranking member who is a subscriber and has logged in within four weeks.

@ragnarok013 has offered suggestions for alternative policy however that has no bearing on what occurred here.

Best suggestion i can offer for the future is if you are planning to be away pass leadership to someone else before going away.

@proxos666Unfortunately that sounds like a clever spin for a poor policy(one of which didn't exist back in the day, nor is it made obvious).

Maybe Bioware should curb their greed and not require you to be subscribed just to hold onto your guild while also never taking a holiday.

Or better yet, let's start handing out high ranking positions in a guild, for the sole purpose of ensuring a terrible policy doesn't kick in and leave us in a bad position to begin with.

Create potential problems to avoid a potential problem. Good strategy measures 101.

And I guess keeping a guild is a perk right?

Though ultimately, let's blame the victim -  classic deflection.

The only people at fault/reponsible here are Bioware and the person who committed the foul. 

As such, we've virtually all moved on and the company loses out, with less customers because of their ill practices.

@Justice668

This is why as guild leader the person who is the next highest rank should be someone that is trusted whether it be a friend or someone else you know that you can trust.  That way when the policy does kick in that person gets the guild leadership passed to them instead of some random person that may not be trust worthy.

While there are different ways it possibly could be done such as the way WoW does it where you have to request the leadership passed down there still needs to be a policy in place in case the Guild Leader does abandon or leave the guild hanging.

I know it's frustrating for you however you would still as guild leader need to ensure that as the one handing out ranks that the players with the higher ranks are the ones that you trust or know won't do something like this as to the best of your ability.  While of course nothing is 100% with random people on the internet it would help ensure that someone you trust takes over while your away.

 @Belgorad

This was a planned winter break by the guild, particularly with the aim to let the United Forces merge take place and then settle down before we started up again.

All of our guild were aware, and the senior staff were not expected (to their knowledge and mine) to have to keep checking in/logging in.

We also had non senior staff, though trusted veteran members whom were still subscribed at the time and logging in.

If it helps give any scope to the absurdity of the scenario, the person whom got the leadership was far down the list and someone whom was just a standard member that didn't even play often. Furthermore, the trusted guild members were still logging in at that time anyways, which is how we found out.

It's my thought that the system didn't work like it should have, and I've yet to see any evidence from Bioware showing/confirming that it in fact went to a ranked or normal ranked subscriber. 

Rather what it did, was keep handing off the guild leadership to anyone that was subscribing, regardless of rank.

As I stated before, it's a wash now, we're not coming back.

If you want to prevent this from happening again consider the following :

1. Make it obvious, like neon signs wherever guild management is concerned, that it reminds you of this policy.

2. Send out a mailer

•  Every month as a courtesy to a guild leader to further remind them
•  If a guild leader unsubscribed, they get the email immediately upon unsubscribing
•  Should an unsubscribed guild leader be nearing the threshold period, the mail is sent yet again

3. Limit it from dropping any lower than the equivalent the default member status

4. Have the system monitor any extreme leader ship change activity. Such as GM status being handed down more than three or four times within a twenty-four period, or some metric that would red flag odd behavior.

This is most likely the last post I'll make in the thread as I don't believe I have anything left to add/offer.

Feel free to feedback the suggestion(s).