Guild Universe Help

This page contains information on how to get around Guild Universe. It's a site like no other, so please take a moment to read the information below to help familiarize yourself with our community.

Your Characters

When you first register with Guild Universe, your are allowed to create up to 8 characters or identities on the site. These characters are all associated with your single e-mail sign-in. At any time, you can log in as any of these characters, much like you would with "Alts" in an MMO. Just click the Characters icon () above your character portrait to access your character management page. Here is where you create and manage your identites.

Once you are logged in as an individual character, you assume the site permissions of that character. Independent characters only have permission to view and post in the public forums. When you register with Guild Universe, your first character starts out independent. Characters can remain independent, start a guild site, or they can join a guild site.

Membership in a guild site gives a character the ability to view private guild posts and news and to participate in private polls and calendar events. If you were invited to join a guild site or have found one that is taking applications, you may login as one of your independent characters and apply for membership.

The way to know if your currently active character is a member of a guild site is simply to look in the upper right of the page. If you see your guild's name between brackets to the left of your character's name, then your character is a member of that guild. If not, then you need to fill out an application to join.

To fill out an application to join a guild site, simply click the Join This Guild button on the guild's navigation bar when you are at their site. This will notify the founder of the site that you wish to join. Your character's application will be either approved or declined. If approved, your character will gain permissions to view private content on the guild site that you joined.

Your characters can be a member of one guild site each, or even be founders of a guild site of their own. Founders can also appoint officers from the member ranks. An officer can perform the same site management tasks as the founder, such as approving members, managing forums, and approving news posts.

Guild Sites

Guild Universe is not just one website, it's a website made of many websites. Each of these sites are controlled and managed by individual guilds and their members.

There are three common navigation areas that you will notice on all sites:

Community Bar

The Community Bar is visible across the top of every page and contains links to pages that relate to the Guild Universe community as a whole. Here you can browse the guild sites list, search for a character, read the latest public posts from all sites, or click the Guild Universe logo to read the latest Guild Universe site news.

	Links to the list of Random Top Guilds, as well as allows you to search for a specific guild by name. This is a great place to start finding Guild Sites to browse.
	Links to a page that enables users to search for a particular character by name.
	Shows a list of the last public news items released by all Guild Sites. This is where you can catch up on the latest announcements from our members.
	Lists the last public forums posts from all public forums within Guild Universe. Go here to see some of the latest topics up for discussion.
	Links to this page. Duh.

Guild Site Navigation Bar

To the top left of every page and below the Community bar is the Guild Site Navigation Bar. This area contains buttons that link to various areas of the Guild Site that you are currently browsing. Each Guild Site has its own navigation bar. This bar may change style based upon the Guild Site that you are browsing, but is consistent in functionality across all Guild Sites.

	This button always takes you to the front news page of the Guild Site that you are currently browsing. From the news page, guild members can also submit news items for approval from this page.
	Takes you to the forums page for the current Guild Site. Every Guild Site has its own public and private forums and even shares common forums available from all sites. Officers and Founders also have additional functionality that allows them to manage their guild forums from this link.
	Displays the Event Calendar for the Guild Site. Here, you can discover and join public and private guild activities sponsored by officers in the current guild you are browsing. Officers and Founders also have additional functionality that allows them to manage their guild events and raids from this link.
	Takes you to the Guild Members page. This page shows detailed information about the guild you are currently browsing and lists all members of the guild.
	A very important button. If this button is visible, the guild you are currently viewing is accepting applications for membership. As a guild member, you can view private guild information such as secret raid forums or private news announcements. Once you have registered with Guild Universe and logged in as a character, you can apply for that character to join any guild that displays this button. If you were invited to join a guild, and even if you registered at that time, you must still complete an application and be approved before you may view private guild information. Only Guild Founders and Officers can approve an application. A single character can only be a member of one guild at a time. But, each account can have multiple characters (up to 8 for free, unlimited for subscribers) that can join multiple guilds.

Personal Navigation Bar

To the right of every page is your Personal Navigation Bar. This also is where you log in to Guild Universe. If you are a registered member of the Guild Universe community, you will see the portrait and name of the character that you are currently logged in as. Above the portrait are buttons that allow you to maintain your account, your, guild site, your characters, and to log out.

	This links to the Account Management page where you may update your e-mail address, password, and other personal information. It is also where you set e-mail preferences and manage Thread Watches.
	Click here to manage your Guild Universe characters. Here you can create, edit and log in as any characters that you define.
	Click this button to log out of Guild Universe.
	Only visible if the character currently logged in is a member of a guild. The My Guild News button always takes you to the front news page of your character's Guild Site.
	This button is visible only to Guild Officers and Founders. It takes you to the Guild Management page where you can manage your guild members, process applications, and perform all other guild management activities.

If you are not already a member of a guild, you can start a new Guild Site. After registering, simply complete a form and your are good to go.

Guild Universe FAQ

What are the four different sections in my Guilds Forums?
How do I turn off E-Mail notifications and reminders?
Why does my Guild banner or Character picture look fuzzy or stretched?
How can I tell if someone replies to one of my posts in Forums?
What do all the icons mean next to news, events, and forum items?
How do I transfer ownership of a Guild Site to another character?
How do I assign a Guild Member a title?
How do I add a Guild Member to my site?
How many Characters do I get with my account?
How do I enroll/unenroll in an Event?
How do I delete a Guild Site?
How do I remove a member from the Guild?
What is the difference between Founder, Officer, Member and Recruit?
How do I edit a members role or permissions?
How do I turn off the 'Join this Guild' button?

Q: What are the four different sections in my Guild's forums?

A: When you are logged in and viewing your Guild's forums you will see four different forum sections. The first is the Guild's Private forums. These forums are only visible to those users who are logged in and are a member of the Guild. Officer only forums will appear in this section as well. The second section is devoted to the Guild's public forums. These forums are viewable by all people visiting your Guild's website. The third section is called "Games Forums". This section will display forums for the game selected by your guild founder. These forums are used by all guilds that play these games. The last section you will see is the "Guild Universe Common Forums". This section allows you to interact with the entire Guild Universe Community.

Q: How do I turn off E-Mail notifications and reminders?

A: All of the options for turning on and off e-mails are located under the section. This button is located in the upper right hand corner of the Guild Universe website directly above your character portrait. On this page below the "Login Information" is a section called "E-Mail Preferences". Use these options to control which notification you would like to receive.

Q: Why does my Guild banner or Character picture look fuzzy or stretched?

A: Guild Universe automatically resizes the width and height of your banner or Character image if it does not conform to the length and height requirements.

Listed below are the recommended sizes for the Portrait and Banner images:

	Portrait	Banner
Width	135px	700px
Height	160px	160px
Max File Size	25Kb	75Kb

Q: How can I tell if someone replies to one of my posts in Forums?

A: The best way to monitor when someone replies to a forum thread is to use the 'Watch this Thread' option located at the top of every thread page. When you click this link Guild Universe will notify you via e-mail when someone replies to this thread. Please note that Guild Universe will only notify you once a day for each topic on your thread watch.

To choose a thread to watch click the the 'Forums' button located in the top left navigation. Next, Select a forum, then a topic. The 'Watch this Thread' link will be located in the upper right hand section of the thread listing.

To view or cancel a thread watch select button located in the upper right section of the website. All of the threads that you have selected to watch will be located under the heading 'Thread Watches'.

Q: What do all the icons mean next to news, events, and forum items?

A: Guild Universe uses several icons to help users quickly determine what is happening on the page. Below is a description for each icon that you will see while using Guild Universe.

Icon	Description
	Sticky Thread - This means that a thread will automatically sort to the top in the forums regardless of the last time the thread was updated.
	Locked Thread - Designates that the forum thread is locked. Public and Guild users will not be allowed to post replies to this thread.
	Moderated - Only officers can create new threads in a forum with this icon.
	Officer Only - Only officers have access to a forum with this icon
	Needs Approval - This icon designates if an item is in need of approval from an officer. This applies to News items.
	Guild Only - This icon marks an item as guild-only. This means that only members of your guild who are logged in can view this item. This applies to news and forum items.
	Today - A post was made in this forum or thread within the last 24 hours
	Recent Post - A post was made in this forum or thread within the last 3 days

Q: How do I transfer ownership of a Guild Site to another character?

A: The ownership of the guild is defaulted to the Founder. Only the Founder has the option to transfer guild ownership to one of the officers. To change ownership click on the 'Manage My Guild' button located directly beneath your Character portrait. This will take you to the 'Guild Management' screen. Next, click on the 'Site Ownership' link. This will take you to the 'Site Ownership' page. You will notice a section called 'Transfer Site Ownership'. In this section there is a drop down box that contains a list of all the officers in your Guild. Select one of the officers and then click the 'Transfer' button. The person you select will now be the official 'Founder' of the Guild and have full administrative rights to the web site. This includes the ability to delete the entire guild site. So, use this option with caution.

Q: How do I assign a Guild Member a title?

A: Select the 'Manage my Guild' button located directly below your character picture. Next, click on the 'Manage Members link. You will see a listing of all the members of your Guild. Next, select a character by clicking on the name. You will then be taken to the 'Character Detail' page. Enter a title in the 'Custom Title' text box and click the 'Save Settings' button.

Q: How do I add a Guild Member to my site?

A: To add a member to your guild:

Make sure the user you wish to add has an account with Guild Universe.
The user must click the "Join This Guild" button when visiting your site.
Have the user complete the application.

If the "Join This Guild" button is not displayed on your guild site:

Click the "Manage My Guild" button.
Click "Recruit New Members" under the "Membership Applications" heading.
Select "Turn On Guild Recruiting" and click "Save Settings".

If that is all good your next steps are as follows:

Login to your guild site.
Click the "Manage My Guild" Button. The system will take you to a "Guild Management" screen.
Scroll down under the heading "Membership Applications".
If any applications have been posted they will appear here with an "Accept" or "Decline" button.
To Accept click the "Accept" button. Then assign that person a role of "Officer", "Member", or "Recruit".

Q: How many Characters do I get with my account?

A: Guild Universe allows you to create up to 8 characters per account for free. Subscribers can have unlimited character identities. Note that characters cannot be deleted once they are created. So, use your 8 free slots wisely.

Q: How do I enroll/unenroll in an Event?

A: To enroll in an event the event organizer must first enable 'Event Registration'. You will know this because the event will have an 'Enroll in this event' link at the bottom of the event description. To register for the event simply click the 'Register for this event' link. Your character name will appear on that event. To remove yourself from that event simply click on the 'unenroll' link located next to your character name. Users that enroll in an event also receive an e-mail reminder before the event.

Q: How do I delete a Guild Site?

A: Only the founder can delete a Guild Site. To do this, first click on the 'Manage My Guild' button located directly below your Character picture. Next, click on the link 'Site Ownership'. Under the heading 'Delete Guild Site' you will see a button named 'Delete the [Guild Name] Website'. Click it and confirm.

Guild Premium Subscribers:
You will not be able to delete your guild site because it is tied to a subscription. However, you can send in a request support to have that guild subscription transfered to a new site! Please send in a request with the current guild name, and the name of the new site.

WARNING: Once you delete a guild all data will be lost. We do not keep backups of deleted guild sites! Do not share your password with anyone as they could delete your site and all of it contents.

Q: How do I remove a member from the guild?

A: To remove a member of your guild first click on the 'Manage My Guild' button located directly under your character picture. Next click the link 'Manage Members'. Select the character that you would like to remove by clicking on the character name. You will be taken to the character roles page. You will notice on the character roles page a set of radio buttons, one of them being 'Remove From Guild'. Select this Radio button and click 'Save Settings'.

You can also remove a character from a guild by first viewing the character details page and clicking 'Remove From Guild'. The only way a Founder can be removed from a Guild Site is by first transferring ownership to another Officer and then leaving the guild.

Q: What is the difference between a Founder, Officer, Member and Recruit ?

A: Currently Guild Universe allows you to assign one of four possible roles to a member of your Guild Site. These are Founder, Officer, Member, and Recruit. These roles determine the member's site permissions.

The Founder role denotes the character that currently 'owns' the guild site. This role cannot be assigned to more than one character at a time. The founder has full administrative rights on a site and even has the ability to delete a site or transfer site ownership to another character.

The Officer role enables members to create and delete forums, post in officer only forums, make and approve news posts, and post events.

The Member role allows guild members to submit news posts (for approval by an officer), submit forum posts, and view private guild events.

The Recruit role can post in forums, and view private guild items.

Q: How do I edit a member's role or permissions?

A: First, click the 'Manage My Guild' button located directly below your character picture. Next, click the 'Manage Members' link. Select the character by clicking on the character name. You will then be taken to the character permissions page. You will notice on this page a set of radio buttons denoting the various roles. Select one and then click the 'Save Settings' button. This is also where you can remove a member from the guild.

Q: How do I turn off the 'Join this Guild' button?

A: To turn off the 'Join this Guild' button select the 'Manage My Guild' button located directly below your character picture. Next, click the 'Recruit Members' link. You will notice a pair of Radio buttons. Select the 'Turn Off Guild Recruiting' button and click the 'Save Settings' button. Note that with this option disabled, no one can apply for membership to your guild.