Early Saturday morning, our dear Halorthis had his account hacked. I immediately got on Shaady, and turned in a ticket, locked down our bank, demoted people etc. Blizzard locked Hal's account fast, then within about an hour restored all our stuff (thanks Blizzard!). One Hero with 5 alts being hacked can really do a lot of damage! Next few hours were spent putting things back in order (thanks for that help Isabellaswan!).
Fun Saturday morning
This got me thinking....

The bank theft was my fault really. A while back when I was adding "authentication" to the various Officer ranks, I had tried to communicate with everyone at the Hero rank my intentions. (Basically I need to empty a rank before I can adjust some features on it). It took so long for all the Heros to get back to me, I eventually forgot to do the task. Long story short, I just thought I had finished it, yet we were left unprotected from a member who has been absent for some time.

So yesterday, I demoted all officers not seen online within a month, and corrected the security features, and re-set the banking privileges. Looking through the guild roster and seeing how very many toons have not been on in over 5 months, I have decided it is high time for a roster clean out.

Please mark your calendars and let all your friends know!

---

Guardians will begin removing ALL CHARACTER TOONs from the guild, if they have not logged on in over 5 months. There are several conditions as follows:

• You will not be removed from the roster if you have logged in within the last FOUR months
  OR..


• You have notified an officer that you intend on returning to active play and are noted as "On Leave"
  OR..


• We know you to be a cyclical / established member and/or in the Military.

If you have not logged in an ALT in the last FOUR months PLEASE DO SO NOW! Your toon will be safe.

• We will try to keep MAINS of well established guild members as long as 1 year. Alts will be removed but are easily added back in upon your return.


• Please note, if you have not logged in for 3 months or so, your toon will be demoted to TYRO. This is for security reasons, and to prepare you for removal if you we don't see you for a few more months.


• Toons marked as "On Leave" are safe, but will be demoted to TYRO rank. Alts will be removed, but again, we will make every effort to retain your last known MAIN.

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What is "established" -- Don't take your chances. Let us know here on the boards, or LOG IN! Heck, just reply to this thread and we'll hang on to your WoW presence.

Players who have been removed from the guild in such a clean out, and were in good standing can simply re-apply to the guild here on these forums for a re-invite. If you have left the game (yea right.. you'll be back!) or if you are venturing elsewhere (like SWTOR), know that you are welcome to remain a member here on the forum community. We plan on this community going on long after we have all moved on to the "next game", and we welcome your company here and on Vent.

It looks like the next expac, "Mists of Pandaria" will be coming this summer, so refreshing the guild roster seems right. I know a lot of people come back at expansions, but realistically, if you have been gone from the active ranks for more than half a year, a proper re-introduction of yourself on the forums (re-applying) is probably a good thing for the newer members to get to know you. Again, we try to keep Mains (at least) as long as we can, and will keep your Main (at least) in the roster indefinitely if you have properly had you marked as 'On Leave' -- communication is key.

Over our years here as a guild, there have been many players who disappear for a year or more and we have been lucky to reunite with them again. It is our intention to keep our Roster as intact as possible, but its also hard to sift through a large roster of innactives, and keeps the guild feeling a bit "stale". I hope everyone understands, and we'll try to make it as easy as possible for you when you return to active play.

Please take a look at the forum sticky for the new connection information
here

Basically the company's server hosting our vent's hard disk crashed, and no back up was available, so all clients were issued a new server. I'm currently re-configuring it, and sorry for the inconvenience.

All in all, 2011 was a very good year for <Midnight Cartel>!

We had solid guild growth, a balancing of guild temperament, and some very strong progression seeing all the end game content of the current tiers in at least one ten man every patch. Our guild continues to be a very strong Community and while we have had to say "goodbye" to a few old friends who've left the game, we've said "hello" to some wonderful new friends.

Here's to a very safe, and happy new year's evening to you all out there, and wishing you all the very best for 2012!

You know <Midnight Cartel> will be there to enjoy it with you.

Cheers!
Matthew

I would like to refer all guild members to a Policy Change post in the Policy area of the forums. It is relating to Ranks & Privileges, and details some changes in regards to Craftsman and Bankers.

Please head over when you have about 10 minutes free time, as its a bit long (TL,DR version is included).

Huge orginizational layout change, as well as the renaming of many sections... of most importance is the following...

The Town Hall is now Capitol Square and is located in The Capitol. This will be the top category of the forums. Everything is now divided into districts and should be much easier to find things (I hope)... Anywho... enjoy.

Forum access will be restored shortly after i double check the permissions on each forum.

Of note, some forums will be getting name changes going forward as I work out the best names for them...