MSC Portal

Information

Server	USWest (Hyjal)
Type	Player vs Enemy (Normal)
Faction	Alliance
Guild Name	MSC

Charter:
We are a smaller clan that aims to provide a friendly gaming environment for our members. We stand for service, honor, and loyalty to our Alliance brethren. Serve always the Alliance, render aid when needed, and stay true to the principles of friendship and loyalty.

Everyone is expected to treat each other with respect. Griefing, ganking, and negative attitudes will not be tolerated. We strive to make a good name for ourselves through our actions and words. Members are expected to always offer assistance to their Alliance friends when needed, and to treat others as they would wish to be treated in turn.

Long live the Alliance!

Organizational Structure:
Our organizational structure most closely resembles a democracy. I welcome feedback on all clan matters. I usually go with whatever the majority wants, although I reserve the right to overrule the majority and make my own decision if I believe that decision to be in the best interest of the clan.

In charge of the web site is myself (Jakeman). I develop and maintain the site, and pay the bills. We have Officers that help with things like recruiting, organizing, etc. Officers also have moderator powers on the forums to help keep them clean. Below are the ranks:

MSC Founder - leader of the guild.
MSC Commander - an officer in the guild with the power to promote, demote, invite, and remove members in the game. They also have mod powers on the forums.
MSC Knight - a member who has proven himself to be a quality member. To become a Knight you must be active and helpful in the guild.
MSC Footman - a regular member. To become a Footman you must be invited into the guild in-game, and you must register on the web site.

Forum Moderator - a mod that does not play WoW.
Peasant - a regular person who has registered on the site but does not play WoW or has not yet been promoted.

History:
This site started out as a personal Mac gaming site back in 1995. Some of the old revisions of the site can be seen here. The site grew slowly over the first few years. I didn't get a message board, "real" hosting, or a domain name until ~1999. My first domain was mac-gamer.com.

I started a clan for Diablo 2 in early 2000, before the game came out. About a month before Diablo 2 came out, I submitted news of our Diablo 2 clan to IMG and Macgamer. From those news posts I got about 200 signups, a handful of which stayed and became our active member base.

Since the creation of our gaming clan, the site has changed focus a couple of times, from a personal Mac gaming site (mac-gamer.com), to a general Mac site (macsubculture.com), to what it is now which is just the gaming clan (mscclan.com). The clan tag also changed once along with the site... we started with MAC (The Myriad of Allied Clansmen) but later changed to MSC (MacSubCulture) to go with the domain name we were using for a while. We are using MSC now, but the acronym has lost some of its previous meaning because we have gradually become a Mac AND PC gaming clan.

As Diablo 2 gradually got old, we tried splitting off into multiple games including Warcraft 3, Starcraft, Planetarion, Lineage, and Shadowbane, but none of those "divisions" were very successful because this clan has always been a Diablo 2 clan at its roots. World of Warcraft looks to be the next big game, and so I am devoting all of my efforts to that end.

Web Site:
This section details all of the features of this web site.

Forum:
Our forum is just your typical online message board. Once you are registered and logged in then you can post on the forum. The forum is our main means of communication outside of the game, so everyone is encouraged to participate on the forum.

The forum also features a reputation counter for each user. Those users with permission can rate posts as being good or bad (+1 or -1). A user's total reputation is displayed next to their name when they post. This system is designed to encourage quality posts.
Member List:
The member list provides a way for members to maintain their own list of characters in the game. When a user is registered and logged in they can click the "Your Characters" link on the member list to edit their list of characters.

While all registered users can maintain their own character list, only clan members' characters will show up in the main character listing.
Market:
The market place is open to all registered users, member and nonmember alike. The market is used for organizing trades and sales of items.

If you want to post an item on the market you need to navigate to the appropriate category, click the "New Item" button, fill in the details, and submit the item. Once the item is submitted, other registered users will be able to find your item in the various listings and make offers by clicking the "New Bid" button. As the seller, you can accept a bid by closing your item (if it isn't already closed) and clicking the "Accept Bid" link next to the bid.
For users that are looking to bid on an item that has been posted on the market, you just need to view the item and click the "New Bid" button to place your bid. If your bid is accepted as the winning bid then you will notified by email (if you have enabled that option in your User CP) and by the confirmation form that is explained next.

If you are the winner of an item or the seller of an item for which you have just declared a winning bid, you will be presented with a confirmation form on the main market page that shows up when you have items that are awaiting confirmation of delivery. To conclude the deal, the buyer and seller need to make arrangements by contacting each other through email or private message (links available in the profiles). Once the deal has gone through, both the buyer and seller can submit their confirmation forms on the main market page to mark the deal as concluded.

Another nice feature of the market is user feedback and ratings. The previously mentioned confirmation form also contains a text field and menu that you can use to post comments and an overall rating for the deal. Positive ratings are +1, neutral ratings are 0, and negative ratings are -1. A user's total market rating is displayed next to their name when they post on the market and forums, so it is to your advantage to only make serious auctions and bids and to follow through with the deal if you accept a bid or if your bid is accepted. If you don't follow through then you are likely to get a negative rating.
Gallery:
The gallery provides an easy way for anyone to view in-game screenshots that are taken by clan members. The gallery contains action shots of clan activities from within the game. The gallery pulls it's images from the "Gallery Shots" forum. Anyone can add a screenshot to the gallery by submitting it in that forum.