The slow decomposition of my guild: part I

Over the last two months, my guild on fenris has been slowly falling apart.
This was caused by a number of reasons. 100% due to people whether they were leaders or followers.
This has got me to thinking about what makes a good guild fall apart. I've read posts by other bloggers about different reasons for this problem. But from my perspective I have my own set of indicators. In this series of posts I'll go over one issue at a time.

1.) Commitment vs. Independence. A good guild regardless of pvp or pve\raid progression gives it's members the independence to do what they want. After all WOW is a game & you need to enjoy it or else theres no point in putting in the game time when there's a whole real world out there. At the same time Guild Member's need to have a level of commitment in order to make guild progression\goals reached.
The best raiding\pvp guilds have this level of commitment. I view it as the digitization of obligation: Taking the same level of punctuality & commitment you would have towards a softball team, martial arts class, volunteer group & applying it to your guild. This doesn't mean your OCD about WOW, it just means that you treat your raid time as a social event that requires your
commitment.

Guilds that require too much commitment (We raid 7days a week, your on standby from 7-11pm if we need you, if your not raiding we need you to farm or run lowbies\blue 70's through dungeons.) Fall apart because they require too many demands. They may appeal to some players who need a sense of being the team player, having the greatest gear until the new patch comes out. Like a 80hr workweek the players reach their line, & either gquit or gexplode (sucking out the guild bank, ninja'd tier gear etc. ) Also as I noticed w myself when I raided hard in my 2nd guild for about a month last year, you begin to avoid your guild. I made alts that no one knew about, spent hours killing boars (figuratively) just so I wouldn't be bothered w transmute requests or potion requests or can I farm this mat for the kara runs.

Guilds that have too much freedom, or to much lazies fare attitude towards events have difficulty attaining progression. This is expected. But what is worse is when guild members commit to an event & then do not attend or show up late. I view this a no digitization of obligation, "This is a game so who cares if I really show up on time. I am @ home I'm not outside with other people." This is poison to a guild if it's not eliminated from the organization because the guild members will be conditioned to not attend raid events since they never get off the ground. They will cease to commit to events, which will lead to the guild leaders becoming disillusioned w their positions.

So to Summarize: The Best Guilds have enough freedom so they're members want to play because they enjoy the game, & have players who have been able to mentally apply their sense of real world obligations to be present at guild events.