effectively defunct guilds with houses

[bilbous]

So who are they, how can they be taken over?

[MishkaL1138]

Looks like you need to start a scavenger hunt. But you can't claim a guildhouse if you're not in a guild, keep that in mind (unless your guild is hidden). And I think they return to the GMs and then they're auctioned again.

* Mishka considers making some more tria just in case *

[bilbous]

Step one: identify defunct guilds with houses
Step two: claim desire to join said defunct guild to helpful GM
Step three:
Step four: PROFIT!

[Bonifarzia]

"Defunct" guilds? 
A term that needs to be defined. But how? 
Let's have a guess:
1) Player accounts inactive for more than N months are automatically removed from the database. (I don't know what N is, maybe 18, possibly much shorter for accounts with little activity/few hours played in total.)
2) Guilds that have less than 5 members for a certain time (hours, minutes?) are automatically disbanded.
3) Houses of guilds that were disbanded are claimed by the octarchy and can be auctioned again.
End of guess. Do the official rules significantly differ from that? If not, does anything need to be changed? Really?

[bilbous]

There are 571444 accounts according to the stats page. I'm not sure that there is any automatic account removal.
Current long term players may have several characters that they have not looked at in a long time in guilds that may have houses.
I suppose it would be fairly elementary to run an automated query to determine whether a guild house has been accessed.

Blah blah blah I don't even know which houses are guild houses and /or are occupied. I can't imagine there is enough guild activity to merit anyone having a house although a few guilds might be making good use of them. I never did understand why they were managed in such a tight fisted manner, it did make more sense when there were up to 200 people online fairly regularly.

I suppose the real problem with them is they  get packed full of garbage.

I don't think I have much of a point in here anywhere.

[tman]

I would rather not have accounts be deleted after a certain amount of time.  If I take a year away from the game I would hate to come back and find all my progress gone.

However, there could be a rule like "If a guild with a house has no players log in for N months in a row, that guild loses its house."  I am thinking something like 3 or 6.

[bloodedIrishman]

Once a player hasn't played for two years, they aren't coming back. Also, if a guild's house hasn't been accessed for a year the same could be said.

[kiaerulf]

Being a member of one of the old guilds i can say people do come back once in a while  ... at least in Elemental Light. At our 7th anniversary we saw people who hasn't logged in for at least a year and probably longer.
Deleting peoples account should be avoided if possible or at least let people have several years to come back. I wouldn't say the account is someones belongings but people might feel fairly strong about it and especially if they had invested thousands of hours in it. Coming back and finding your account deleted would probably cause a riot ... or at least very bad publicity.
I can see from our members list that accounts/chars that was last accessed earlier than 16th of july 2007.  has been removed from our members list. If that means their account has been deleted I can't say ... but they are no longer a member of EL and it wasn't us who kicked them.

Regarding guild houses: I can't see its such a big issue if there are unused GHs around. As long as there are houses available I don't think a big fuzz should be made of it. However it would be nice to have rules in place just in case available houses are needed. I'd say: If a guild hasn't had a member online in 6 months, the house should be cleared and whatever is in it should be put in storage marked with the leaders account. Then the lock is changed and the house is ready for new occupants.

[bilbous]

better still change the lock to be pickable I wanna train my useless level I bought when the ruinator still sold training in it.

[SpidaManz111]

Once a player hasn't played for two years, they aren't coming back. Also, if a guild's house hasn't been accessed for a year the same could be said.

Not true . Been three years since I last played.

[Venalan]

Guilds which have gone inactive in the past have had guild houses repossessed and resold by GMs, so this does happen. The last few rounds of auctions were new houses, but I see no problem with reselling a house from a now inactive guild.

[bilbous]

As I was suggesting they should become dilapidated first and subject to intrusion. Too bad that isn't going to happen, I'd just love to break into Stonehead's larder and turn it into a place fit for kran.

[bloodedIrishman]

Once a player hasn't played for two years, they aren't coming back. Also, if a guild's house hasn't been accessed for a year the same could be said.

Not true . Been three years since I last played.

Lies.

[Vakachehk]

Why don't we just sell guild houses on a term basis?

[zarre]

I'd say: If a guild hasn't had a member online in 6 months, the house should be cleared and whatever is in it should be put in storage marked with the leaders account. Then the lock is changed and the house is ready for new occupants.

Sometimes guild members never received a key before the key-holders of the guild, including the guild leader leaves PlaneShift. Checking who entered a guild house is a start but the member list could also be checked for activity before any action is taken.