Warwidow,

It is nice to see people to put their thoughts out there so we can all have informed discussion and better understand where we all come from, our point of views, etc.

As a member who has been here pretty much as long as NicholasJohn16 (aka Nick), I have nothing but respect for him. He set out to create a guild in an MMO that was unheard of. Not just LGBT, but an LGBT guild that was made for everyone...with a Code of Conduct that protects all members, especially vulnerable ones such as youth (under 18). The online gaming world is not kind to the LGBT world, we all know that. At the same time, we wanted to have a space that was friendly to youth (under 18). Regardless of what we may think or how we were educated about sex, amongst other things, that is not what we're here for. We're here to play a game. As a parent, I know I wouldn't want my son being taught about "life" via an MMO guild...it just isn't appropriate and it isn't our place to make that decision. We have an inlcusive guild and most importantly, a safe one for everyone of all ages. If only there was a guild like this when I was young! This was a wonderful vision and one that I have supported now for 3 years...Stonewall was actually created and set up one year before Star Trek Online Beta!

Nick, along with all of the other Officers act in a democracy with all of their views and votes being equal and to me, it isn't about "obeying" anyone. We are a community here and Nick is our leader and our guide. Some may question why Nick doesn't play TOR or how he can be leader of guilds within other MMO's he doesn't play. I don't see it that way. Nick has a representative in TOR through Zepari and I'm sure a smiliar set up will be used with other MMO's we may pursue. This shouldn't be a concern and in fact, it should be celebrated that we are able to take the spirit of the Stonewall community into other MMO's so that even more LGBT, especially youth, have a safe place to play and be themselves. If we can establish Stonewall in as many MMO's as possible, we've done an amazing thing! This is a guild unlike no other and we shouldn't view it from a traditional guild perspective.

My two cents. :)

Quote by Warwidow

I'm sure this will be deleted as I know people like to control their "world view" they have but the reason people left was that our supposed Guild Leader NicholasJohn decided prior to launch that he was not going to be playing Star Wars The Old Republic now I questioned myself why would I obey someone who doesn't know me because he doesn't play the game that I am playing, as far as I'm concerned he would be website admin and have no say in a game he has no stake in (yes I'm talking about NicholasJohn).

Nick is the community manager. All Officers have an equal opinion on matters in this guild as we use a voting system. Members are free to apply to be officers when positions are open and the decision is made solely on availability and willingness to help the guild.

Quote by Warwidow

Not only were we not made aware of this (I checked the forums before asking officers and was never given a straight answer as to why NicholasJohn had any say in a guild for a game that he is not playing)

I know when I was a member during this time I had inquired directly to Officers and got a direct answer as to what had happened so I'm sorry this was not the case for you. Nick is the community manager and for that reason alone is part of both guilds decisions. He does not solely control either guild.

Quote by Warwidow

The person that had been handling the majority of the tasks of a Guild Leader (that would be Doogie) was passed over for Zepari (who I have issue with) who hadn't played at all on Repulic ( I know this because I had early invite since the first day and played consistently up until I left the guild. I never announcement or badmouthed this guild or its officership till then.

Again this was decided to allow no one person to have more control and have uniformity. Zepari and NicholasJohn16 both win and loose (amongst officers) when it comes to decisions being made.

Although we appreciate people giving their input it needs to stay within the range of our code of conduct. Any parts of a post that violate this will be removed. If to much of your posts violates the CoC than the entire thing will be removed.

Thank you for your time.

-Jon

I'm sure this will be deleted as I know people like to control their "world view" they have but the reason people left was that our supposed Guild Leader NicholasJohn decided prior to launch that he was not going to be playing Star Wars The Old Republic now I questioned myself why would I obey someone who doesn't know me because he doesn't play the game that I am playing, as far as I'm concerned he would be website admin and have no say in a game he has no stake in (yes I'm talking about NicholasJohn). Not only were we not made aware of this (I checked the forums before asking officers and was never given a straight answer as to why NicholasJohn had any say in a guild for a game that he is not playing), the person that had been handling the majority of the tasks of a Guild Leader (that would be Doogie) was passed over for Zepari (who I have issue with) who hadn't played at all on Repulic ( I know this because I had early invite since the first day and played consistently up until I left the guild. I never announcement or badmouthed this guild or its officership till then. (removed JustJon)

Those my thoughts

Regards,
Warwidow

Will not delete but have removed the areas that are against our CoC (Justjon)

Whoops! We've not been doing a good job keeping this updated. >.

Episode 511 - Voyager - "Future's End, Part II" - 11/13/1996

http://www.allstepisodes.com/megvid.php?n=4309

Janeway must prevent the destruction of the solar system by a 20th century entrepreneur who has acquired the timeship.

Enjoy!

Sorry if someone already suggested this, but you can plan a DPS build rather than a Healing build with dual pistols. Just because you go Merc doesn't mean you have to specialize as a healer. Two entire trees are devoted specifically to beefing up DPS and only one is for healing.

Same with the tank. If you prefer their armor, but aren't really interested in a tanking role, you can spec DPS.

As BioWare states (thought their actual implementation may be debatable) any one class' build is equal to a similar build from another class. So in theory, a Bounter Hunter healer should be as good a healer as a Jedi Consular Healer. A Bounty Hunter following the same AC, but speccing as DPS should put out as much DPS as an Imperial Sniper for example.

That last part seems to be the biggest complaints I see from Gunslingers and Snipers. That since they are "pure" DPS with no alternative role (e.g. a Mercenary's ability to heal, or a Vanguard's ability to Tank) they should put out more DPS, but BioWare addressed this saying that they have greater variety in DPS over the 'hybrid' classes, but not higher DPS.

The short version is... take your 2-handed Bounty Hunter and spec him how you want. You don't have to be a healer.

Hi everyone.

I am sorry to report that the sponsors of this event are unable attend tonight. With that said, if you had planned on attending, I would strongly urge you to organize a Datacron run together with your fellow Stonewallers. After all, Stonewall is not about its leadership, what makes Stonewall great is this community.

My sincere apologies,
Will

Quote by Taher

I agree that they should be ashamed of themselves. Will they still be able to go into the stonewall or the kos channels? They might decide to do something stupid like join the channels and harass people in there.

We'll definitely be keeping an eye out for this.

I agree that they should be ashamed of themselves. Will they still be able to go into the stonewall or the kos channels? They might decide to do something stupid like join the channels and harass people in there.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk

Wow, that's pretty bad sportsmanship to poach off of another site. Those involved should be ashamed, really.

Today, I have some unfortunate news. The officers of Stonewall Fleet and Knights of Stonewall have been forced to remove a few members of our community for extreme violations of the Code of Conduct and Member’s Handbook. Those removed have violated sections 1.2, 1.3 and 4 of the Code of Conduct.

The members concerned have decided to leave our guild and create a new one, but have been using our website to recruit new members from our membership. We have been made aware of several members being contacted on this site and asked to desert Knights of Stonewall for this new guild. Our members report that they have been given reasons to leave, but they are blatantly false.

Therefore, I feel it is important to take this unprecedented step of posting publicly about this issue in order to put the record straight.

Background
Since two weeks after the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic when full control of the Knights of Stonewall in-game guild was available to us, there have been some extremely critical posts in the forums and negative chat in-game from a small number of people.

We believe in the right for every member of our community to be able to post their opinion and influence the direction of Stonewall, so we answered all these posts, repeatedly, as best we could. We will continue to answer any genuine concern and encourage everyone to discuss issues that are troubling them.

Of those who were most vocal in their opposition to decisions made by the officers, we noticed that there was a commonality between them: nearly all of them had been members of a guild in World of Warcraft that recently cut ties with Stonewall Fleet and the Knights of Stonewall.

Shortly thereafter, a former officer of Knights of Stonewall left to create his own guild. While we try to give all of our members the benefit of doubt, when we discovered that the founding members and officers of this new guild were the very same people, we find it strains credulity to believe this is a mere coincidence.

Our Policy
Stonewall Fleet and Knights of Stonewall enjoy a healthy relationship with other GLBTA guilds in the games in which we participate. We have made alliances with many guilds in other games so we can direct members to a guild in games we don't directly serve. We have also seen new guilds being created from within our community. We have supported these guilds as they offer something we cannot, and the founders of these guilds have a very valid reason for creating them.

That is not the case with this most recent guild. It has been created by plagiarizing our own Code of Conduct along with many other of our policies and procedures. This is not surprising as its founder was a long term officer here who was fundamental in our success and our decisions.

When we first discovered that this officer was unhappy with only being an officer, we tried to help by offering him any position in the guild he wanted. Short of providing full control of Knights of Stonewall, there seemed to be no solution. Therefore a new guild was born, not because of a genuine failing in Knights of Stonewall, but because an officer with some loyal friends decided he wanted control of our members.

Perhaps one of the great ironies of the entire controversy about banding our guilds based on class was that this former officer both proposed and was the primary advocate for this version of guild banding. In other words, the most vocal opponents of this decision wound up, unwittingly, leaving to follow the very person who proposed it.

In this organization, no-one has absolute control on how things are run. Officer positions are open to anyone and they are chosen by the current officers based solely on ability and the willingness to help all the members. We don’t promote our friends or play favorites, but we do link the responsibility of working for the members with the responsibility of making certain decisions.

We exist because of fundamental belief that all people should be welcome and treated fairly. In the gaming community, we all too often hear the word ‘gay’ used as an insult, are made to feel uncomfortable for speaking about our boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife, and even sometimes we’re simply not wanted. In Stonewall, we don’t restrict who can join based on their age or the current level of their character. We accept all people who come looking to be part of a community of equals and treat one another with respect.

We provide a website that allows our members to get to know each other in their own way. We have private groups in the Network, 18+ rooms on our Ventrilo server, and we try our best to get everyone involved so that our community has a variety of methods to communicate and interact. We are attempting to offer a place for everyone, and I hope you can all agree it can be a difficult job, but it is well worth it.

In Conclusion
I’d like to apologize for this situation. I don’t enjoy having to publicizing these issues as we like to foster a comfortable and friendly environment. I can assure you that the officers are remaining vigilant to any new “attack” and I hope you can all get back to enjoying the community we have all help build over the last 4 years.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact an officer. If you are approached by anyone encouraging you to leave any of our guilds in Star Wars: The Old Republic for another “Stonewall” guild, please report the incident to any one of the officers. Our goal is to provide you with a safe and fun environment in which to make friends and enjoy your gaming experience.

Thank you for your support and assistance.

Sincerely,
NicholasJohn16
Community Leader

Quote by Xcentric

Thanks for the feedback!

Quote by kiddkasper

it already sounds like you've made up your mind about which direction you'd like to go

I'm not sure why it sounded like that. What did you think my decision was? cuz I'm baffled lol.

Quote by Justjon

What I tend to do is look at the progression video on SWTOR and see which play style fits what I like.

That sir is a great idea, thanks... will check em out.

I think it was

Quote by Xcentric

but I prefer tanking to healing. So I'm looking for feedback on the BH from you who've played it to get an idea of which I would enjoy more. I will likely focus more on dps. I

Only one specialization has a tank option.

Thanks for the feedback!

Quote by kiddkasper

it already sounds like you've made up your mind about which direction you'd like to go

I'm not sure why it sounded like that. What did you think my decision was? cuz I'm baffled lol.

Quote by Justjon

What I tend to do is look at the progression video on SWTOR and see which play style fits what I like.

That sir is a great idea, thanks... will check em out.

Quote by bluewraeth

400 sythweaving this evening.

Toon name and faction?

Quote by Montrose

Montrose is Armstech

Empire or Republic?

Episode 510 - Voyager - "Future's End, Part I" - 11/06/1996

http://www.allstepisodes.com/megvid.php?n=4308

A 29th century timeship causes a time paradox when it accidentally sends itself and Voyager to two different periods in 20th century Earth.

Enjoy!

Quote by Xcentric

one of the big incentives for this is coordination. It's frustrating to be in pvp pugs where there is no leadership and the enemy takes advantage of our lack of organization. It's not so much the losing as the doing it so poorly. If that makes sense

Makes sense... one of the biggest things in a group is how well they communicate. If a guild group (even small) enters a Warzone it can actually make a huge difference because you have a solid group communicating. Even if it's for example I am going to help take X yell if you get overwhelmed here and I'll get back quick.

My main is actually a BH Merc. I really like playing him and I find him to be loads of fun. If you think that you will like the option to tank that definitely go powertech. Both specs have viable DPS but also play extremely different. I like the fact personally that I have healing options even though I'm dps (it helps in emergencies) but I am sure that powertech has some "oh no" spells as well.

As Kasper said because it's up to you as your the one who plays it. What I tend to do is look at the progression video on SWTOR and see which play style fits what I like.

Also my armstech can make weapons up to lvl 20.

yes he has blades for Qyzen...even one that is a lvl 17 blue. :)

If I have the mats I'll be happy to make it.