Looking for guild: Guild recruitment tool

Chalkdust · 07/04/08, 11:27 PM

This is a project I have been working on for a few months. It is a tool desinged to solve all of your guild recruitent needs. I have designed this site so that every ad listed, can be searched by:

keywords
date
server
server type
faction
time zone
progression
raid start time and
raid end time
All ads that are posted will expire after a time unless they are updated, (kept current) or they will disapear.

URL: Looking For Guild

Guild recruitment forums are a huge time sink. To find anything, you are going to need some luck and a lot of patience. Our advanced search engine eliminates hours of digging through forum posts to find a player that suits your needs, and makes it easier for players to find the exact guild that they are looking for.

This site is 100% free, has no gold ads, and only takes a few minutes to register and place an ad.

I have tried to think of everything that could make guild recruitment as easy as possible. I would love to hear any comments and suggestions that you may have. I am always trying to make the site better.

Tharia · 07/05/08, 11:29 AM

Looks nice to me. I like the way you specially davertise for top guilds with a video, although I reckon this is very much PR for the site too ^^. Search function seems to work well.
A suggestion would be to split US and EU, I think there might be many European guilds interested in such a site although so far I only see US guilds advertising. Could get quite messed up if Guilds from all over the world start posting. (Maybe there are EU Guilds already in there I didn't find, but that kind of proves my point ^^)

jshaffer2112 · 07/05/08, 2:16 PM

Get ads that aren't dirty or annoying. Given their current state, AdBlock is definitely staying on for your site.

Chalkdust · 07/06/08, 6:08 PM

Originally Posted by Tharia

Looks nice to me. I like the way you specially davertise for top guilds with a video, although I reckon this is very much PR for the site too ^^. Search function seems to work well.
A suggestion would be to split US and EU, I think there might be many European guilds interested in such a site although so far I only see US guilds advertising. Could get quite messed up if Guilds from all over the world start posting. (Maybe there are EU Guilds already in there I didn't find, but that kind of proves my point ^^)

I was thinking about adding a European section for a while now, your post was the deciding factor. Hopefully this section will be as popular as the US section has been.

• dragon12 · 07/07/08, 4:51 AM

A few things as I go through the registration process...

Have to enter the server name twice when registering
Raid start and end times could maybe have a 30-minute granularity (minor)
When I previewed an ad, the preview did not show me the description (only the text size thing was in the description box)
The ad-submission box is a bit misleading...it's titled "Guild Links"
Might be a good idea to have some form where you can fill in the classes you are recruiting so I could, for example, search for all guilds recruiting rogues, or search for all rogues seeking guilds

Chalkdust · 07/07/08, 8:20 PM

Originally Posted by dragon12

A few things as I go through the registration process...

Have to enter the server name twice when registering
Raid start and end times could maybe have a 30-minute granularity (minor)
When I previewed an ad, the preview did not show me the description (only the text size thing was in the description box)
The ad-submission box is a bit misleading...it's titled "Guild Links"
Might be a good idea to have some form where you can fill in the classes you are recruiting so I could, for example, search for all guilds recruiting rogues, or search for all rogues seeking guilds

I fixed the duplicate server input bug.
Added the 30 minute increments to raid start and end time.
Fixed the "guild links" bug.
Adding a form where guilds can enter what classes they are currently recruiting is a great idea! I wish I had thought of that. I am working on that right now.

I cannot duplicate the "review ad"bug that you mentioned, but I am still working on that. What browser are you using?

@jshaffer2112 I fixed the ad problem, I just removed them. They were causing more trouble than they were worth.

Thanks to everyone for the input. Please keep the suggestions and feedback coming, they have already made the site better.

Khamul · 07/08/08, 11:29 AM

As a non english native player (in a non english native & speaking guild), what's missing in the ad submission form is some sort of "Main guild language" selection for EU guilds (English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, and more ?).
That's also a primary criteria for me if I have to search for recruits : I want them to speak my guildmates language fluently.

As a side note, my current realm, "La croisade écarlate (EU)" does not appear in the realm selection field.

Chalkdust · 07/09/08, 5:23 AM

Originally Posted by Khamul

As a non english native player (in a non english native & speaking guild), what's missing in the ad submission form is some sort of "Main guild language" selection for EU guilds (English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, and more ?).
That's also a primary criteria for me if I have to search for recruits : I want them to speak my guildmates language fluently.

As a side note, my current realm, "La croisade écarlate (EU)" does not appear in the realm selection field.

I am sorry, but as much as I would like to, I do not have the resources for languages other than English.

Khamul · 07/09/08, 5:37 AM

I'm not requestiing for your web site content localization at all.

I'd just like one more field in the recruitment ad, that would be the main player language.

The thing is I'm in a french guild, we're typing and speaking in french, so if i'm looking for recruits, I want them to speak french fluently, and that's a prime deciding criteria for the applicant. Same goes for german guilds, and so.

I think it would be interesting to have this criteria as an ad form field, instead of specifiying it in the ad description, as I think it's also an primary filtering criteria for players looking for a guild.

Evelinaera · 07/10/08, 1:10 AM

This website, has been a tremendous help to our guild as we have been progressing through Black Temple and Hyjal Summit. We've picked up 7-8 recruits who have listed Looking For Guild World of Warcraft guild recruitment as how they had heard of us. I would recommend it to anyone.

Chalkdust · 07/10/08, 5:29 PM

Originally Posted by Khamul

The thing is I'm in a french guild, we're typing and speaking in french, so if i'm looking for recruits, I want them to speak french fluently, and that's a prime deciding criteria for the applicant. Same goes for german guilds, and so.

I think it would be interesting to have this criteria as an ad form field, instead of specifiying it in the ad description, as I think it's also an primary filtering criteria for players looking for a guild.

I added "Main Guild Language" as a required field. It is searchable through the advanced search page. I am still working out the best way to add this to the "players looking for guilds" ads.

Atep · 07/11/08, 5:41 PM

just add a "main language" field to the players as well.

Most europeans will search for only one language anyway, with the exception of extremely good english-speaking guilds, which probably don't need to use your tool anyway.

♦ Blacksen · 07/11/08, 5:46 PM

Problem with this site atm is it doesn't have enough of an attraction to people searching for a guild. Lots of guild leaders love it because it's an easy add to post, doesn't require bumping, etc. But looking at adds that have been up for a week or so, they've only gotten 20-30 views, while on the guild recruitment forum itself, they're geting 100+ views.

Just an observation.

Hildegard · 07/11/08, 5:47 PM

The server list appear not to be complete. My home server isn't present (EU-Forscherliga).

Chalkdust · 07/12/08, 7:57 AM

Originally Posted by Blacksen

Problem with this site atm is it doesn't have enough of an attraction to people searching for a guild. Lots of guild leaders love it because it's an easy add to post, doesn't require bumping, etc. But looking at adds that have been up for a week or so, they've only gotten 20-30 views, while on the guild recruitment forum itself, they're geting 100+ views.

Just an observation.

I am glad you noticed this, and it helps prove the point of why this website is more useful of a tool than the guild recruitment forums. On the forums the posts are receiving as you say, 100+ views, but that is from people who have to look through every single ad, hoping to find something relevant. At my site they are receiving 20 - 30 views but because of our search function those are all, or mostly 100% relevant. They are people looking for exactly what was listed. So yes, you ad will receive less views than the guild recruitment forums, but you are more likely to actually find a guild that wants you, or a player that likes your guild on my site.

I will add "main language" to the "players looking for a guild" category, and I will update the EU server list to include non-English speaking servers by tonight.