Guesting System

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By Kitan Tataru

This page explains TarValon.Net's established process for an Accepted or Soldier to choose an Ajah or Company, also called a Community Group. This is known as the Guesting System.

This page also explains the process an Aes Sedai or Gaidin must follow to change which Community Group they are part of, while in the process being called "Unaffiliated."

The Membership Manual contains more information about this topic.

History

In the Wheel of Time series, no one is a member of an Ajah until they are raised to Aes Sedai. An Accepted chooses which Ajah to join during their raising ceremony (NS, Ch. 11). These people have had many years, through the process of being a novice and Accepted, to discover what the different Ajahs are about and where their personality will fit.

From TarValon.Net's founding until January 2006, Accepted and Soldiers could only access one Ajah or Company (Community Group) at a time. They would choose which Community Group they wanted to join when they were raised to Accepted or Soldier, and they very rarely changed groups. We found that this led to people assuming that, once an Accepted or Soldier chose a Community Group, they were then a full member of it. After "joining" a Community Group in this way, Accepted and Soldiers were allowed to take full part in discussions about topics that only affected that group's Aes Sedai or Gaidin, as Community Groups did not have a private forum that excluded Accepted and Warders at that time.

More significantly, there was an expectation that Accepted and Soldiers were locked into their choice of Community Group. Changing groups was considered extremely bad form, and some people even saw it as borderline betrayal of the Accepted's or Soldier's previous group. This was not what the site's administration wanted or intended to happen, so the Guesting System was implemented to change the culture of inflexibility regarding finding one's home within our community.

When the Guesting System was first introduced, a significant number of Tower Sworn (Aes Sedai and Gaidin) were very concerned. Some thought that Accepted and Soldiers would be constantly cycling in and out of the Community Groups' Sitting Rooms or Great Rooms as if there were a revolving door. Others thought that anything shared in a Community Group's Sitting Room or Great Room would soon become public knowledge. To address these fears, a Chambers forum was created for each Community Group, which was only visible to the group's Aes Sedai or Gaidin. However, as Chambers were new forums, virtually all discussions continued to happen in the Sitting Rooms and Great Rooms for a very significant period of time.

Fortunately, privacy concerns and other fears did not come true. The first guesting Accepted and Soldiers and those thereafter respected the space of each Community Group and kept information from the Sitting Rooms or Great Rooms confidential.

Ultimately, the Guesting System became one of the best changes TarValon.Net has ever made. Accepted and Soldiers are no longer afraid to change Community Groups; they feel free to find the place where they truly belong. The Tower community as a whole has been brought closer together by the creation of the Guesting System—people in different Community Groups who would not have known about each other found themselves with new friends after guesting in different groups. Many of these friendships persisted even if an Accepted or Soldier Aspired elsewhere. Members aren't nearly as cloistered in their Community Groups with only a few friends outside of it. Our members also have a better understanding of how the different Community Groups work, which has led to more cohesion amongst the Tower as a whole, particularly among our Tower Sworn.

Up until late 2021 if a Tower Sworn (Aes Sedai or Gaidin) wanted to change the Community Group they belong to, they needed to take a voluntary demotion to an Accepted or Soldier, so that they find their new home. In October 2021 a new policy was implemented, where if an Aes Sedai or Gaidin chose to leave their previous groups, they would become Unaffiliated Tower Sworn. As Unaffiliated Tower Sworn, they would be free to Guest with Community Groups in search of a new home, or they might decide to not Guest anywhere. More information about unaffiliating can be found in the Membership Manual.

Guesting

This is how the Guesting System works.

How to Guest

For the first six weeks someone is an Accepted or Soldier, they must guest with two Community Groups at a time, regardless of whether each group is an Ajah or Company. At any time, the Accepted/Soldier may change which groups they are guesting with, so long as they are in two groups at a time (not one, not three, just two).

An Accepted/Soldier may spend as much or as little time as they wish within a given group. Some people will guest with a Community Group and immediately know that it is not their home. Others may spend eight weeks in a Community Group before deciding that it is not where they belong. Some people may guest with every single Community Group to make sure that they are not overlooking a group that might fit them the best.

Some people do two or more "rounds" of guesting - they will guest with every Community Group during the first "round," then revisit the few Community Groups they think might end up being their home. Other people may know exactly which Community Group they will Aspire to as soon as they are able and will not participate much at all within the second group they are guesting in. Still others may leave the Community Group they think they belong in to see how much they miss being there. All of these guesting methods and more are perfectly acceptable ways of finding one's own home within our Community Groups.

Should an Accepted/Soldier or Unaffiliated Tower Sworn wish to change one of the Community Groups they are guesting with, they should fill out a form, found in the Master/Mistress of Accepted and Soldiers office forum, with the information of which group/s they want to leave. Many Accepted/Soldiers have made a point to post in the Community Group's sitting room prior to leaving to say goodbye and thank you. This is usually greatly appreciated by the members of the Community Group.

When requesting to leave a Community Group, an Accepted/Soldier or Unaffiliated Tower Sworn should also request to guest elsewhere unless they have Aspired. The duties of moving people from one group to another falls on the Tower Gatekeepers. They cannot move an Accepted or Soldier from one group to another until they have received both requests. Since the filled out form is reviewed by the Master/Mistress of Accepted and Soldiers, they are the ones who request the moves between user groups.

In some cases, an Accepted/Soldier or an Unaffiliated Tower Sworn might find themselves in need of a "break" from Guesting. In this case, they should request that they be removed from both Community Groups they are currently guesting in. The request to come out of the "break" should be done by requesting to guest again with two Community Groups. An Accepted/Soldier should only be able to see into two groups at any given time.

If it has been a week after an Accepted/Soldier has alerted the Master/Mistress of Accepted and Soldiers that they wish to leave a group and they have not been removed, they should email the Director of Membership.

Etiquette While Guesting

The message in this part is important enough that it deserves its own section.

An Accepted/Soldier truly is a guest while they are in the various Community Group forums. Remember that this is where many of our Tower Sworn consider their homes to be. That means that personal information is often posted in these forums.

Under no circumstances should an Accepted/Soldier discuss any information they read in Community Group forums with anyone not in that forum.

They should not allude to that information by any means, manner, or form.

They should not repeat it.

They should not copy/paste it anywhere.

They should not paraphrase it.

Nothing. Nada. Zip.

If anyone is found to break this ethical code, the punishment will be severe. An Accepted/Soldier should not join a Community Group just so they can gawk at the skeletons in the closet.

Aspiring to a Community Group

Once a member has been an Accepted/Soldier for at least six weeks, they are eligible to Aspire to a Community Group. This means that the Accepted/Soldier is declaring that this is the group they intend to join once they are raised to Aes Sedai or Gaidin. This is a necessary part of being an Accepted/Soldier - they cannot become a Tower Sworn until they Aspire. When an Accepted/Soldier has Aspired to an Community Group, they are called an Aspirant.

An Accepted/Soldier does not have to Aspire to a group right at the six week minimum time period; some people take several more weeks or even months before deciding to Aspire to a particular group.

Each Community Group has a different process for Aspiring. An Accepted/Soldier will learn about that procedure either by looking through the stickies in that Community Group's forum or by contacting the group's Head of Ajah/Company Commander.

Once an Accepted/Soldier has officially Aspired, they should alert the Head of Ajah/Company Commander of the other group they were guesting with to have themselves removed from that group's forum. This means that until the Accepted/Soldier becomes a Tower Sworn, they will only see one Ajah/Company forum.

Aspiring to a Community Group does not mean that an Accepted/Soldier is a member or even a half-member of that group. They are still free to explore other Community Groups if the desire strikes them; they just need to un-Aspire by alerting the Head of Ajah/Company Commander of their Community Group.

Accepted and Soldiers: Please do not let reluctance of offending the members of the Community Group to which you are currently Aspired prevent you from finding your true home. Tower Sworn realize that sometimes it takes time to find the right group, and they respect that.


If you have any questions about the Guesting System, Unaffiliating or Demoting, feel free to email the Master/Mistress of Accepted and Soldiers or Director of Membership.