A Silver Dagger in the back

I'm a member of a guild in EverQuest called the Silver Daggers. At least, at the time of this writing. The reason being that I've got a bone to pick with certain members, and over the last several months it has grown from being a minor irritation to one that I'm choking on. What follows is both a rant, and an open letter to the guild leadership and membership.

There are a lot of good Daggers. You know who you are. But there's a problem in the guild, and the leadership seems to me to be mishandling the situation in what can only be described as the poorest way possible. I am saddened to say that faced with the fact that there are Daggers who prefer to whisper poison anonymously, instead of taking up issues with other players directly, I find myself in the position of not being able to trust a lot of people I’d prefer to consider friends.

For the last several months, there have been boatloads of complaints filtering through the officer corps directed at myself, Thallyia, Kegs, and probably others - Khalabraxis almost for certain - from an anonymous source, and stirring up a load of shit on our tail. The net result is that a couple of my friends got booted today from the guild with no acceptable explanation.

Now, here's the thing:

1) All of these complaints have been anonymous.

2) We don't actually know what the complaints are in regard to - The officers won't tell for fear that telling us what specifically was being complained about would reveal the source of the complaint. So, what we have is a lot of "your behavior in guild chat" or "your behavior on TS" crap, which given that we all have the attention spans of cracked out gnats, could be any of about a million subjects, various matters of use of language and any of about a trillion one-off comments.

3) They all been followed by the imperial "Knock it off". Well, shit on me! We'd be glad to knock it off if you'd just give us a MOTHER-FUCKING STRAIGHT ANSWER as to WHAT THE FUCK we're doing to piss in Anonymous' Wheaties.

So, the net result is that we've all toned shit down in guild chat, and on the Team-Speak channels. But since we still don't have any specifics on what were doing that was rubbing Anonymous the wrong way, it's not like we know what it is they want us to stop.

Now, what I find particularly interesting is the following - neither Thally or I have been on until today, for about a week and a half. And yet it appears that the complaints have still been rolling in. So, what? We piss this anonymous turd off by not playing as well?

But wait- I'm up to my ears in 90% of the same shit that Thally is, and I'm about 10 times as crass as she is. And yet no one complains about me- What the FUCK?!? It doesn't add up.

So here's my theory: someone(s) in the guild has a personal grudge against a couple of folks, and is slamming complaints left and right just to cause trouble- and they are doing it because they know that the officers will "protect their anonymity", that is to say, let them hide behind the skirts of the officer corps like the cowards that they are.

My instinct tells me that at least one of the anonymous person(s) is (are) from the officer corps, and that they are just hiding behind the anonymous complaints because he/she/they are too craven to come out and actually confront someone they have a problem with.

Prove me wrong. Give up a name, and a specific incident. Let's start with just one.

Or better yet, how about a guild-wide hearing? Let's drag this anonymous accuser out into the light of day where my friends have an opportunity to actually hear the charges and defend themselves. Let the guild decide. This nasty little covert tribunal shit needs to stop.

You know what Xordar? I think you and some of the people you've made officers have sold the Daggers down the river. I think you’re too in love with the guild leadership to see what really going. I think you've been too long away from the game to see what's really going on and I don't think you're in touch with the guild membership anymore.

And I think that it's the very picture of cowardice to not at least wait until Thally was logged in to de-tag her.

Xordar, I'm still a Dagger. Unlike a lot of Daggers, I've actually read the charter.

The Silver Daggers is lead by a Chieftan and his council of Officers, but all Clan members have a voice. Should our Chieftan or Council abandon our cause, we will instantly try to expel him as a subverter of our rights and his own, and we will choose another Chieftan to lead and protect us. We fight not just for glory, wealth, or honour, but for that liberty which no virtuous man can survive without." -Haemish, Founding Guildleader

Either drag this anonymous accuser out into the light, or show up on the carpet in your jackboots and blackshirt and stand accused of fostering cowardice.

Or are you just going to boot me too, and cut out the tongue of one of the last people in the guild who's not afraid to say what's on his mind?