So apparently this is a policy where 'if the current GM of a guild becomes innactive for 30 days, leadership is passed on to the next highest ranking active player'. So after 2 years of hard work, we managed to lose our beloved guild within 30 days...
Game masters have been ticketed, and we have merely received the same reply...'we can't do anything about this'. I'm not sure why this policy exists... Blizzard claims its for guild progression, but a guild can progress without a GM, and if the GM sets such limits that it can't, it won't be a successful guild in the first place.
I want Blizzard to review this policy, and hopefully change it, so that situations like this will be prevented. I wouldn't mind Blizzard fixing my current situation aswell, because this is outrageous. Especially due to the fact that this game prides itself on being 'about the community'.
I was one of the officers kicked out of Kryzler's guild.
Now, I agree with the rule in some situations. I've used it myself to regain guilds I have created on accounts I no longer use. However, in this case it is not one sided story.
To clarify some facts here. The entire raid team, with perhaps one or two exceptions, decided to take a break. This isn't a situation in which the GM and a few officers decided to take a break, literally everyone who made the guild what it is went on holiday. We are talking 70% of the guild and 95% of the important characters (ie, not alts/friends ranked characters) taking a break.
Blizzard didn't know that we were just "taking a break" etc sure. However, when we came back and discovered the guild was in someone else's hands, GM's were ticketed. We made it apparent that the guild change of ownership was not something that we were happy about (and when I say we, I mean the GM and two primary officers of the guild). At the point when the guild was created and leveled, and now, when the dispute is taking place, we ARE paying customers. Blizzard need to accept and understand that this policy WILL enable guild ninjaing and have a solution in place to deal with disputes created by this process.
In our case it is exceptionally easy to see something has gone very wrong. Some lowbie petitions for leadership of the guild, gets it, kicks everyone in the guild, invites a high level character, passes GM to this character then quits. The new GM then invites lots of new people to the guild. That is not how you replace a GM who is absent, that is how you ninja a guild.
Considering how important guilds are now (having achievements and perks and stuff) surely Blizzard must understand that they are punishing players who have worked hard to build a guild. It's not just a name, the guild offers mechanical benefits which we will now be going into Dragon Soul raids without. There were also raid supplies worth hundreds of thousands of gold in the gbank. This policy, and the lack of a means to dispute the actions taken, go directly against much of what Blizzard has done to try and prevent people from ninjaing.
To sum up:
This was not a guild replacing an absent GM/officers.
This was a low-ranking "friend" of the guild abusing Blizzard policy for personal gain.
This was not what the policy is intended to be used for.
This has left a guild without access to their raiding supplies, guild perks and guild name on their server of choice.
If Blizzard are to have this policy in place, there must be a way to dispute the decisions made. If there is not, as in this case, it is effectively Blizzard-sanctioned ninjaing.
How is that good for players, guilds or the community?