Overstepping Your Bounds

Are you in a guild? If no, then this doesn't apply to you, but you are most welcome to say and share your thoughts anyway.

Assumption...You're in a Guild
Are you the Guild Leader or an Officer or one of the guild's Raid Leaders (if it's a raiding guild)? If you answer yes then you too are welcome to stay and offer your perspective, but I'm not directing this directly to you.

Assumption...You're in a Guild but your Not in ANY leadership role
Nice, now we can all settle in with our Dasani bottled water and chewing gum and get to work.

The question I'd like to address is this: Can a regular guildie in a non-leadership position ever overstep his/her bounds but it be the "right thing" to do? Ugh, I know, I never should have introduced the term "right thing", there's too much room for interpretation. So let's narrow it down then, shall we? Let's say, rather, "for the good of the guild". There's still some interpretation to be made, but I think most will agree that creating drama that would result in a slew of /gquits is not "for the good of the guild".

Mode of Declaration
What would happen if a memeber of the guild unexpectedly mentioned in guild chat one night that they were considering leaving for another progression guild that was closer to killing the lich king than your current guild? How would you treat that person? Now what if this happened when there were no guild leaders/officers online, how would you proceed?

1) "Dude, if you want to go just go."

or

2) "I think you should stay, you're really good and we could really use you."

or

3) "Jerk! How dare you talk openly about leaving our guild. You should just /gquit and do the rest of us the favor of kicking you!"

or

4) "Tell me, what are your motives for raiding? What is it exactly that you would be looking for in either staying or changing guilds?"

The Answer
So what would be the response closest to yours? If you wanted to keep somebody in your guild, a) How truthful would you be with them about the real progress of your guild's most advanced group? and b) Would you result to flattery?

Well I wouldn't flatter anybody, I don't care who they are, and I would do my best to be truthful with them and leave the decision in their hands, not mine. But I would ask them #4. I would want to know why they raid in the first place? Is it to boost their ego by boosting their gear score and showing off to everyone in town? Is is for the challenge of the raid, in which case it wouldn't matter at all what guild you were in, you can be challenged in different ways in any raiding guild you join. Or do you, at this point in the expansion, have the specific goal of doing one thing and one thing only...Killing Arthas?

I realize there are some people who believe that sociality has no place in raiding, and that the progression and attaining your end goal is the only motive. Still others consider the social aspects of raiding guilds and soak up the warmness of the friendships they make along the path, even if it takes them a bit longer to get there.

But here you are, a regular 'ol guildie, facing this potential traitor to your goals; but you want to keep them because they are, quite frankly, one of the best at what they do. So you speak up, you ask them to consider their motives, you tell them the truth about the progress you have made in your group in the guild and how close you are to downing the Lich King. You encourage them to consider what's important to them and let them know that you would support them in whatever decision they made.

Impatience vs Understanding
See I think a guild leader would react differently than a drone (someone like me). I think someone who has led the guild would feel more betrayed by the open declaration of a guildie that they were seriously considering leaving. I think many GL's would /gkick their butt with the obligatory "don't let the door...", etc., etc., etc.

But a drone guildie, who has no real stake in this person as they are not in the same raid group, but share the same motives, has a better chance to make the choices and say those things that are "for the good of the guild" than a GL or officer. You are on their level so it's easier to empathise with their plight.

How good would you feel if you convinced that player to remain? Pretty good, I suppose, and the leadership doesn't have to know. I guess now the question is, should you say anything? Have you, at any time, overstepped your bounds by doing something that you KNOW the guild leader would not have done?

As Spongebob says, "Well good luck with that."