Alliance chat and how do you use it?

[kestral]

I'm most curious about this. To me, alliance chat is an extention of guild chat, a way to meet your fellow alliance members and get to know them. It's much harder to refuse to help someone you know through chat then a stranger, even if they are a member of your alliance.

There has been a lot of discussion/flames/accusations of spam in our alliance chat and I'm wondering, just what is spam in alliance chat? Is alliance chat something only to be used when going RvR? Is it okay to ask for groupings, to announce personal bests, or ask for help in making a decision? To use it just to meet people and get to know them?

I'm just curious as to what others think, and how their guilds and alliances use alliance chat. As I said, I feel it should be an extention of guild chat, a way to tie members of the alliance together as friends, not just strangers with an alliance tag.

Simlus's posting, Guild elitism,

http://forums.barrysworld.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33485

finally pushed me to post. I'm tired of hearing in alliance chat, every other thing someone says being labeled 'spam' and people being told to PM, or make a friend chat. Ask questions in friends chat. Frankly, it's hard to make a FC for asking questions if you don't know who knows the answers, and more especially so if you don't know the players.

Perhaps if Simlus's guild and alliance used alliance chat differently, this level 50 sorcerer and his friend wouldn't have been so frustrated and disappointed, and perhaps they would have. I don't know, and actually, I've drifted from my original intention, to simply ask, how do you all use alliance chat?

Thanks.
Kes

 

[Flimgoblin]

It really does depend on the size of the alliance...

if it's a couple of smaller guilds then I'd say use alliance to chat

but if you've got 12+ guilds with well over 100 people on most of the time then you can't just do that.

in The Fellowship it's usually kept as an information distribution channel - e.g.'Meeting at sauvage to take back keeps, pm Centuri for info'

although in times of trouble (e.g. relic defense) it becomes the chatgroup for it

 

[old.moriath]

Well tbh i think AC is for setting up inter guild hunts events / informing people where the RvR is and what the enemy is doing.

GC is for asking questions and chatting to people in general or PM /s if outside guild.

If AC becomes to congested people just turn it off as they can't see the /g msgs or /gu .. combiening /gu with maybe 20 -30 people in guild at one time and /asend with 20-30 times 20 guilds .. can u imagine the traffic it would cause if it was used as an open channel .. You wouldnt be able to read anything before it scrolled off the screen.

And you would miss the important msgs like 'abls atacking xxx come defend'

It really should be kept relatively free. That way when something in white pops up you know it is important so u read it.

We are lucky in our alliance people seem to follow this rule mostly and we havent had to crack down on it.

 

[Alrindel]

The main function of alliance chat is for informing the alliance about IMPORTANT RvR developments. News of a large incoming force, information about invaders lying in ambush in the frontier, news of a keep under attack, news of a relic under attack, status of keep doors, or an announcement of a planned raid.

It is not for ongoing RvR communications, that's what cg is for. Once it is announced that Scathaig is under attack, the people who are going to defend it should make a chat group.

It can also be used to diffuse urgent non-RvR information that is of interest to all the guilds in the alliance: a GOA event underway, an epic mob raid being organized, and other things of that nature.

Things it should never be used for under any circumstances: "Ding," "Gratz," "Aragone ninja'd some loot," "Aragone sucks," "Celtic Fist sucks," "xxx sucks".

 

[Danya]

Agree with Alrindel. Also things like "woot I just pwned that SB in the gorge" aren't really very useful.

 

[old.chesnor]

The problem with ac is just the sheer number of people who can use it. With 200+ people with access, the spam could be horrendous. So you apply rules based upon the number of people who can use it/read it etc..

There is no written rule as to what its use should be limited to. Its down the the guilds to create rules as to precisely what should or shouldn't be spammed and stick to those rules.

In my experience, one of the biggest problems with ac was that some people were really, really anal about its use. Guilds who already had a less than cuddly relationship used to seem to enjoy tearing each other up in ac just because someone typed "purple cons archer at Yggdra gates". So uptight ac rules actually contributed to the demise of the alliance...

Not only should its use be sensible, but the way its policed should be sensible to. The only thing worse than someone typing "ding 46!" in ac was the several uptight morons who instantly typed "stfu stop spamming ac" etc..etc..thereby increasing the spam several-fold.....tiresome.

 

[talen_sun]

Well, in our alliance, I am beginning to get a reputation as the Spam Police, Spam Fuzz, or other derogatory names!!

Anyway, the main guide lines are as follows -

RvR Info
Rezz requests
LFG Requests
50th Ding annoucments
Questions

Generally RvR stuff stays in /as
Rezz/Group/Questions and such like *should* be answered by /send <person> or a /cg but rarely is.

And the dinging gratz, i'll always forgive.

I'll generally live with any spam for a few mins, then chirp in with "/cg it please folks" and then put up with a torrent of (generally freindly or sarcastic) abuse, then it goes quiet.

To be fair, the alliance we have, it's not really that bad on the spam, everyone is pretty fair, and it's rare it gets out of hand.. but then, thats what GL's are for!!

So, theres a quick overview... hope that helps...

 

[old.Noita]

Again, depends on the size of the Alliance and the number of guilds in it I guess. But as a general rule, /as SHOULD be used to inform people of IMPORTANT RvR activity...in Nemesis Alliance we had (dont know if its still happening but it was see sig ) the situation where EVERY movement of EVERY person in RvR was painstakingly recounted over /as... like...

2 Elves one orange one yellow to 43 AMG Emain....then 2 minutes later an updated report on their movements or demise... like woohoo 2 Hibbies in the Hibbie frontier thats newsworthy fer frikks sake!

Also for things like co ordination of Legion and Dragon raids and so on. Things that are or would be of general significance to those within the Alliance.

What I personally dont mind is people using /as to announce Ding at 50 I think its great when someone reaches that level and I think it should be advertised unfortunately there are always those who then proceed to SPAM /as with Puritanical lecture spiel about how in their wonderful magnanimous opinions this is an abuse of /as

Toodle Pip

 

[kestral]

Okay, I concede, it's not for meeting fellow alliance members, but just how do you meet them then, so they aren't just anonymous names, but people you care about, or isn't that important in an alliance, only in your guild?

I do admit, after reading the posts, a huge alliance group could fill the alliance chat to overwhelming proportions, wasn't thinking of that, as our alliance chat normally is fairly quiet, it's just that when someone does post, asking for advice, they frequently get told to cg it (which I still say is hard to do if you don't know who knows the answers).

 

[Belsameth]

I'm with Fingoniel on thisone.

the BnQ alliance consists of only 2 guilds, the second one being mostly run by ex BnQers. so there /as is mostly an extention of /gu

in the big alliances that can become a clear problem tho, with spam. it then depends mostly on the overall goals of the alliance. pure RvR alliances should be kept that way, and only used for important RvR anouncements. with a more general alliance Talen's rules seem to make a lot of sense, and make a (imo) overall friendly alliance, where fun on /as is actually possible without being forced to turn it off because of a few non stop spammers.

 

[Flimgoblin]

Originally posted by kestral
Okay, I concede, it's not for meeting fellow alliance members, but just how do you meet them then, so they aren't just anonymous names, but people you care about, or isn't that important in an alliance, only in your guild?

I do admit, after reading the posts, a huge alliance group could fill the alliance chat to overwhelming proportions, wasn't thinking of that, as our alliance chat normally is fairly quiet, it's just that when someone does post, asking for advice, they frequently get told to cg it (which I still say is hard to do if you don't know who knows the answers).

that's a difficult one I guess... but I don't think /as is the advice place... you can /gc who alliance and pick someone at random (it'll only show 25 at a time... though they may have allowed it to show 26-50 51-75 in a future patch - no idea if it works for /gc who alliance - works for /gc who and /who...)

maybe have your alliance set up 'advisors'? people who'll give out info and ask one of them...

hard question that.

 

[talen_sun]

it's just that when someone does post, asking for advice, they frequently get told to cg it (which I still say is hard to do if you don't know who knows the answers).

As i said earlier, in our alliance, you can freely ask the question in /as, but the ANSWERS should be /send to you and from there, you KNOW who has the answer, so a /cg can be setup.

Or the person who knows the answer invites you to a /cg then tell you from there...

It's not hard, it takes a line or two to ask, and then you get the answer in private without the spam...

 

[Danya]

"RvR Info"
yes, definitely (aslong as it's not a running commentry on how you ganked that stealther, etc.)
"Rezz requests"
No, these should be handled by cg, /gu or /send.
"LFG Requests"
As above.
"50th Ding annoucments"
If you must, not really that useful though, /gu and /send to friends is enough IMO.
"Questions"
Depends on the nature of the question. "Where's LLyn Barfog?" etc. are better handled in /gu or /advice. RvR questions which people in your guild can't asnwer are fair enough though.

These are my opinions and are biased by me being in a large alliance, big scroll can be a problem.

 

[Kagato.]

Might I point out its only guilds who have labelled Alliance Chat rvr info only, not the game, it IS called Alliance CHAT lol. I really don't see the harm in leaving it for free use and the moment something important comes up just announce it and ask /asend to be cleared till whatever important event has passed. It really shouldn't need anything other then commen sense to run.

As for asking advice, sometimes the guild might not have enough online to answer so you need to address a broader spectrum and surely allies who are friends are stronger then allies who barely talk to one another.

Just seems sad that people can't be allowed to post more then 2 lines in /asend before getting stamped on by the spam-police when its often sensible questions alot of people would be interested to hear about, and don't start with the CG-it nonsense, as it simply wont happen, no one is going to make a cg or join one to answer a question that can be explained in 2 or 3 lines that wont hurt anyone and might give alot of people some handy info.

And yes, we get the people crying that they might miss vital relic raid info !

Which is a fair argument, which is why it made me laugh last night when watching the alliance chat scroll during the relic raid, hanging on every new bit of infomation on the progress of the relic when some muppet piped up that we should take it to a CG ! So if a relic raid doesn't count as important info what does? Isn't that what we have been keeping it spam free for lol.

Communication, its a wonderful thing.