Looking into Phase IV, can we please get guild banks, it doesn’t have to be like Cata, but some place where guilds can donate materials for raids and progression.
People do tend to ask for this, and I always wonder about it. I mean, I sort of get the appeal to an extent, but I also really wonder just how you’re using them that it matters that much.
Is using spreadsheets, Discord and alts a worse experience, and/or what are some of the use cases for you where you find guild banks to really shine as a feature?
Not requiring one person to manage everything and make the time to do so would be the only real argument I need. Even with addons I still need to log into the character and update the lists to discord, mail items to people who request them, stock potions/mats, etc.
The option to just let people grab them from a central source would be so much easier.
I’m not really looking for an argument, I’m just asking because I’m genuinely curious.
If permissions are very open, people tend to fill gbanks with absolute trash. If permissions are very tight, then you're able to delegate permissions and management authorization to others, which still requires attention and management...
I’ve been heavily involved in or lead several guilds that used guild banks, either in future expansions with them, or not, in leveling guilds, and in organized raiding guilds.
Personally, whichever kind of guild you find yourself in or managing, I’d lean towards this requirement of having someone manage everything not going away with guild banks. So I’m more curious as to the details of what you mean, because I’m wondering what your specific use-case is where the trade offs would be in favor of the guild bank.
If permissions are very open, people tend to fill gbanks with absolute trash. This requires at least daily pruning and updating (I’ve done this in leveling guilds like in Classic/TBC Classic where we provided 16-slot Taveler’s BackPacks for free to levelers, with fairly open permissions and always more than 10 available.
If permissions are very tight, then you’re able to delegate permissions and management authorization to others, which still requires attention and management as well as communication overhead for people, like say if you have enchanting mats and that tab is open for anyone to deposit (requires strict regular maintenance to not fill with absolute trash) or not, and only open to withdrawals for designated guild enchanters, then guildies/raiders will still have to coordinate with enchanters to get access to enchanting mats. Though, with discord, there will be an easier to maintain/view/audit log than with guild banks, in general, in my experience.
I’m still left curious:
By argument I mean a reason.
I’m not sure what the anecdotal reference is to there but the gbanks I’ve participated in generally don’t have that issue and doesn’t address what I said. Once again, the ability to allow people to deposit or withdraw items so I don’t have to log in and mail them, or create a spreadsheet and export it to discord where they can see it, saves me time by eliminating that one issue.