I think what has happened in this thread is that we've forgotten how this guild is spread out with different types of people.
First, let me say that we can succeed at raiding. And by my standards, I would say that we have succeeded to some degree. Also, please remember that we do have a bit of a raiding lull during the summer. You'd think that summer is a time when more people would be around, but in reality we always slow down a whole lot over the summer.
For those who feel like we aren't doing enough to progress (which seems to be the biggest part of people in this thread) you need to remember that we are trying to strike a balance between just progressing and between including new members and new 80's into our raid environment. I think what Ewoks was saying is that it is tough to do "hardcore" raiding means that it is tough for Redeemed to progress quickly because our main focus is not just on the 10-25 people who are going to be in those progression raids. You must remember that we have new people hitting 80 every day and are doing our best to include them in our raid environment. A strong focus on progression raiding CAN lead to having our members who are not geared for that content feeling left out. There is definitely a balance we need to strike here. We can progress (and have done so pretty successfully) but we also need to allow for other people to be brought into the raid environment as well.
When I say "bring people into our raid environment" I mean that we want to give them a chance to raid with us as a group of believers. That is why we continue to take time out to do the earlier 25 man instances. We are doing our best to accommodate both new and established members. (Established members being people who want to progress right now).
Currently, as evidenced by the new raid schedule (
http://www.cgalliance.org/forums/showthread.php?t=32653) we are attempting to progress further into Ulduar to try and meet the needs of our established members. Look, you guys are important to us! We would not have had the multitude of successes if you were not with us. Thank you so much for being a part of Redeemed and being patient with us as we try to strike a fair balance. I'm sorry if you feel like we don't care about you. Because we do... and if you feel like someone told you that we want you to leave and go raid with someone else.... come talk to me. That is not the case. The only time I want you to leave and raid with another guild is if you honestly feel like Redeemed is not able to meet your needs. And in that case, while I'm sorry to see you go, I also wish you much success and hope that one day you find that you want to come back to our family.
Please, established raiders, remember that it is a very big task to shepherd a community of 200 people who all want something different from this game. I am one of the people who does want to progress... I love moving forward and have worked very hard to get my character to a place where I can do that. But, we also need to remember that we want to give people who are new to raiding the chance to do the same thing that we've enjoyed doing so much. We want to continue to run lower end raids so they can enjoy the great fun we have as a body of believers raiding and so they can learn and be geared enough to progress with us.
It is going to take hard work and commitment from each of us. We will have to die to our own desires at times. We will have to endure through Naxx and OS even though we may be so tired of doing that. But then we can also enjoy the sweet times together like downing new progression content in Ulduar. Sadly, we cannot focus on just one or the other. We have to do both progression content and old content to gear up new players. That is part of the challenge Redeemed faces. But we are a body of believers and if we love one another and work together we can be successful in both places.
Now, I didn't address the concerns of the people who want to see us run more content to gear up new characters because this thread doesn't seem to have that many of those people involved in the conversation. But trust me when I say that we have almost as many newer members coming to us telling us we focus too much on progression raiding. haha, oh well. That's just part of life in a guild like Redeemed.
I do promise this. We are doing our best to make a fair and balanced (Fox News anyone?) environment where everyone can be happy and succeed.