The Keep:Pirate Cove

Description
Doing things the pirate way... Enter if you dare!

Our guild wasn't created by us - it was boarded, taken over, robbed of its gems, and renamed by our pirate crew. You can still see the wreck of one of its old challenges inside. Yarrrrrrr!

It all started with being greedy, robbing pirates. By Davy Jones's wriggly beard, we never intended to be useful! We were (and are) just living the pirate life - we boarded not just this guild, but many others, robbed their gems, and then either sank them or held them for ransom (so people who wanted an own guild but didn't have the necessary gems could claim them) or made them part of our own fleet. Soon it turned out that by doing so, we were contributing to keeping the Habitican seas free from old abandoned guilds drifting there aimlessly and cluttering up the shipping lanes. The Habitican Admiralty noticed that, too, and started helping us - much like in the olden days with letters of marque and privateering. So nowadays we actually fulfill a function (removing inactive guilds that are no longer useful from the list of public guilds) - but we also still make a good profit from looting all those guild banks! And we don't forget to have lots of pirate fun and adventures, too. We've also fought the first Habitican guild-vs.-guild battle we know of, and might fight more in the future. And we're currently the only Habitican guild with more than four gems in our treasure chest!

Our captain is Mara the Marine Marauder.

By now we have a sister guild - the Elven Grove full of elves hunting old abandoned challenges. It has its own wikia guild page, too.

Challenges
Most of our challenges aren't inside our guild, except @Sphinx's Robin Hood challenge (running repeatedly, and won by @Dewines, @Riverstone, and @Sphinx so far) and the old sunken football challenge. Most challenges are outside in the guilds we conquer or engage in battle with, or in the The Bulletin Board 📌 or (rarely) in the Tavern.

The challenges regarding the conquered guilds are mostly about distributing shares of the booty (guild banks gems) among our crew. Most of those are won by us pirates, but if a landlubber stumbles into a boarded guild with booty challenges, e can usually win one, too.

Sometimes we also create challenges about holding a guild for ransom (finding a new captain for the conquered guild - not necessarily a pirate). If you want to create a guild but don't have the gems for it, just ask in our guild chat if we have one we don't have a use for yet! Usually we'll just give it to you without challenge. But if two or more people want to become captain of the same guild, or if we're not convinced of your guild idea or captaining skills, we might set you some tasks first (things like finding a good new guild name, writing a new guild description, creating a guild challenge, etc., and just generally convincing us that you'll be a good guild leader).

When we battle another guild, there's usually one battle challenge in that guild (with two habits, one for the pirates, one for the other guild, but otherwise identical). When the fight is over, there are "badge" challenges for the winners and the other participants, so everyone who participated in the guild-vs.-guild battle can have them in their profiles. For more details, see the section about guild batttles.

Current Actions and Adventures

 * Former captain @Jameson officially abandoned The Abandoned Camp (it had had that name even before, being more unofficially abandoned) and named @Mara the Marine Marauder the new captain, and was even generous enough to deliberately leave his gems in the guild. Let's not disappoint him in his hopes of hearing wild stories and rumors about that camp in the near future! Meanwhile, booty/treasure challenges are up. There are no plans yet as to what will become of the guild. There's a guild chat discussion going on about adding a pirate island (with a cove, a camp, a duelling ground, and a volcano) to the official map of Habitica...
 * @Riverstone boarded the long-dead "Lolz" guild and turned it into Pirate Foley - a guild dedicated to making a piratic soundscape Habitica audio theme, with amazing results so far! Contributors welcome!
 * Live a S.M.A.R.T. Life (an inactive guild connected to a no longer existing challenge in the The Newbies guild) was captured by @Ariel. True to the guild's original purpose, @Ariel made booty challenges referring to SMART goals(some of which can still be won). It isn't clear yet what will happen to the guild. (If you're looking for other guilds already using and discussing the "SMART goals" method a lot, there are already the Long-Term Goal Accountability 🎯 guild and the Organization Owls!)
 * There are pirates, and there are landlubbing highway men, or (possibly legal) Road Warriors - with their own guild to share tips about all the things you have to deal with when you travel a lot. Nobody quite knows why a guild with such an interesting topic was inactive for so long. (Maybe because all the members were away traveling?) Anyway, the topic sounded too good to just delete the guild - so, after @Ariel had mentioned it, @Dewines asked around for potential new captains (the old one being inactive), and pirate @Rayn the Stormcaller volunteered, became the new guild leader, and will probably try to revive the guild. It's not clear yet what the guild bank gems will be used for - though topic-related challenges are maybe more likely than outright booty challenges.
 * @Dewines had had the Order of Con Congeries in her sights for months. The topic (organizing Habitica meetups at SF/Fantasy/other conventions) sounded too interesting and important to just let the guild fade into oblivion. When @Dewines offered to revamp and promote the guild a little, old guild leader @Helmsman Of-Inepu responded at first, but then became inactive again. So, in the end, @Dewines was made the new guild leader. She renamed the guild Convention meet-ups, panels and other activities, gave it a beautiful new logo, and is generally trying to revive and promote it. @Dewines doesn't want to stay its long-term guild leader, though, and is looking for an interested and capable volunteer to take that position. This could become an important guild for the future representation of Habitica at cons! On the other hand, if it just won't stir, and no new guild leader can be found, it could also just get deleted. So the fate of this guild is still open.
 * @Ariel reoccupied the abandoned Laravel Lair (which was originally about the PHP framework Laravel) and set up some booty challenges having more to do with pirate lairs (i.e., making/keeping one's home comfortable). Some can still be won. After that, the plan is to delete the guild (unless someone wants it).
 * @Llama Hobbit found the Taxidermists guild to be dead and not worth of preserving. So @Llama Hobbit became captain there, cleaned up two old taxidermy-themed challenges with @Cantras's and @Alys's help, and went about dividing the booty with preparation-for-death-themed booty challenges. Most can still be won. After that, the guild will probably be a candidate for deletion.
 * EvoGen-X (a guild about a personal development company of the same name, both apparently owned by @Pierre Tremblay) was targeted and captured by @Ariel who renamed it Group formerly known as EvoGen-X which will be deleted shortly. Booty challenges (having to do with generation X, not with @Pierre Tremblay's company) have been created and won. The guild is now ready for deletion or repurposing. There are plans to use it as a new "Adopt a Challenge" guild affiliated with the Elven Grove guild.
 * @MEmry sighted and boarded the inactive CFA Students guild and (since CFA stands for Chartered Financial Analyst) set up some budget-related booty challenges. Some can still be won! There are no further plans for the guild yet.
 * @Luthien targeted the prayer-themed and very dead Divine Office/Liturgy of the Hours guild, became the new captain there, renamed it Formerly Divine Office/Liturgy of the Hours, and set up some booty challenges with common household chore tasks. Praying, cursing, swearing, or meditating while doing them is entirely optional - as long as you keep your home religiously clean! Some of the challenges are still up for grabs. There are no further plans for the guild yet, so deletion is likely.
 * @Blue lead the attack on the very dead Korean-speaking guild We are the good Duck, became captain there, and created Korea-themed booty challenges, all of which have been won by now. The guild is now ready for deletion or repurposing. (In case you're wondering: Google translates the old Korean guild description to "Once you create the spring. Rules just two. 1 billion if anyone can join. 2. Please observe the respect and courtesy to others. Cursing and fighting can lead to banned. Joe Pheasant deokjil between good strong well above deokjil Good Doug. Arthur Rana letting the party or phrase, to do list, haejusimyeon you better find someone to use as a study group." and the one and only genuine post (from August 2015) to "Korean? Translater??? We Rani good duck ... geolkkayo are you talking about?".)
 * The Sugar Slayers were sighted, hailed and captured by @Ariel. The guild topic (type I diabetics support) is already covered by the more active diabetic support guild The SugarKill Gang. Booty challenges will probably be up soon.

Guilds in Our Sights
This is a list of guilds we're currently watching because, at first sight, they appear to be rather inactive, or duplicates of other guilds, or there is another reason why we might try to capture or sink them soon. (There is no guarantee though that the guilds are really inactive or otherwise useless, and that we'll really target them. So far, we're just watching them.) With the help of this list, suggestions made in Pirate Cove guild chat will hopefully not get lost. The list is in alphabetical order.

If a guild gets mentioned often but then turns out to be worth saving (or if the guild leader says e'd like to keep it), it's also in the list - so, if another pirate finds it, e can look it up here and find out that it's been discussed before, with the result to keep it.

For some topics, there are several guilds, and it helps to get an overview which ones there are first, before deciding which ones to delete or privatize. That's what the section Guilds with Similar Topics at the bottom is for.
 * Aperture Science Adventure Enrichment Guild: Entertaining, but currently populated by guild creator + pirates (one of which does have a genuine interest in it though).
 * Australians on HabitRPG: Sighted by @Snellopy. Contacted in chat by @Dewines. Duplicates the more active The Land Downunder. Last chat February 2015. Guild leader @johnball has been active lately (last login 18 November 2015). No challenges, four gems.
 * Bar Slayers: Sighted by @Blue. Last chat January 2015, several pages of chat, guild leader last logged in August 2013, no challenges, no gems. Not contacted yet.
 * Bitcoin / Cryptocurrency Enthusiasts: Sighted by @Blue. Last chat September 2015 (and the post before was April 2015; there are several pages of chat), guild leader last logged in October 2014, three challenges (one with an active owner), four gems. Not contacted yet. Are the challenges interesting/helpful? Is there interesting stuff in chat? Should it all be moved into one of the other money-themed guilds? With that much chat and challenges, maybe someone even wants to keep and lead the guild?
 * BSD - Berkeley Software Distribution: Sighted by @Blue. Last chat February 2015 (9 short posts), active guild leader, no challenges, 4 gems. Not contacted yet.
 * CakePHP: Sighted by @Snellopy. Dead as a doornail, guild leader long gone, no challenges, four gems. Not contacted in chat or by message yet.
 * Chores (5 icons): Sighted by @Snellopy. An inactive guild with three simple one-task challenges (dishes, laundry, taking out the trash) which contain little icons (instead of emoticons) created by guild creator @Soloana (UID 819013f6-3bc0-4cbe-8127-6c23a2416041, last logged in 10 November 2015). Links to the three icons: dishes, laundry, trash. @Soloana originally planned to make more, but if she ever did, they can't be found in the guild. It might be a good idea to salvage the icons if @Soloana agrees to it (or if she doesn't answer and copyright allows it?), maybe put the icons in the 📜 Library of Shared Lists or a similar place, and then board the guild.
 * Copaxone club: Inactive. Owner is active but hasn't responded to private messages. The guild has a challenge with no tasks and the guild creator as its only participant.
 * Culture Me!
 * Cute and Cool Things on Tumblr: Sighted by @Blue. Last chat January 2015, leader last logged in 11 October 2015, no challenges, 4 gems. Hailed by @Blue in chat (no reaction). Not sure if @Blue messaged the guild leader already.
 * E-Commerce: Sighted by @Blue. Last chat July 2015 (8 posts with several links and infos - are any of those worth saving/posting elsewhere?), owner last logged in 24 February 2015, no challenges, 4 gems. Not contacted yet.
 * Fit Anime Clan: Small guild (5 genuine members) that more or less duplicates The Otaku Dōjō - but the guild members said they want to stay separate, so it's currently no longer a target. Both chat and guild leader are active, no challenges, 4 gems. Hailed by @Mara the Marine Marauder.
 * Five for Fighting
 * FR: Arcane Members: Targeted by @MEmry. Last chat 14 October 2015 (only 7 posts), active guild leader, no other active genuine member, no challenges, 4 gems. @MEmry posted in chat over 2 weeks ago - no reaction. @MEmry messaged the guild leader 29 November 2015, guild leader answered that e is no longer interested in maintaining the guild. Guild leader will hopefully transfer leadership to @MEmry soon. Meanwhile, pirates have invaded the chat.
 * Gamification: Sighted by @Snellopy. Last chat 9 months ago, guild leader last logged in 27 October 2015, no challenges, 3 gems. Not contacted yet.
 * Hellblazers: Sorry @Fear - you bravely won this guild from the pirates in the first place, but now it's inactive again.
 * If Not Now, When?: Sighted by @Blue. Dead chat (two posts, last December 2014), guild leader is active, one nice challenge (by guild leader, with gem) with list of common dailies (various household chores, exercise, mail/email/bills, ...) that might fit into the 📜 Library of Shared Lists or The Basics guild (though maybe they'd be overwhelmed with it). Not contacted yet.
 * ImgurFIT Guild: Sighted by @Blue. Last chat May 2015, guild leader last logged in March 2015, no challenges, four gems. Not contacted yet.
 * i'm probably on tumblr right now: Sighted by @Blue. Last chat October 2014, active guild leader, no challenges (there was an abandoned one that got deleted), no gems. Hailed by @Blue in chat (no reaction). Not sure if @Blue messaged the guild leader already.
 * Kotoba Miners: Currently not a target because guild leader @cheapshot said e'd like to keep it. One of several Japanese learning guilds (Japanese Deep Cave Adventurers, Kotoba Miners, /r/Team_Japaneseのギルド, The JRPG Club, The LearnJapanese Guild, Wanikani, WaniKani<3, and possibly some more). In this guild, last chat was in April 2015, guild leader is still active (as of 18 December 2015), there are no challenges and no gems, and their special learning method is via minecraft, with their own website. Guild leader was messaged by @MCRadium on 14 December 2015 and answered "I would like to keep it. 保存しておきたいです. ", then said so in guild chat, too.
 * Labdoo: @Ariel and @Blue are currently looking into it. Very dead chat, guild leader last logged in 4 July 2015, no challenge (the ones that were there all got deleted/moved, and all the interesting info the guild contains got "rescued" while doing so), three gems in guild bank. On 21 November 2015, @Ariel asked in chat if anyone's still interested in the guild - no reaction so far. Guild leader probably hasn't been messaged yet. @Dewines volunteered to become guild captain and run booty challenges.
 * Lockpicking: Sighted by @MCRadium. Last chat February 2015 (some interesting chat before, contains links where to buy lockpicks), guild leader last logged in July 2015, no challenges, 4 gems. Guild leader was messaged by @MCRadium but didn't answer - so the guild is basically ready for takeover or privatizing.
 * nyctophilia: Yet another sleep guild (or maybe rather a "stay awake all night" guild). Sighted and hailed by @Blue. Until a rafter found it floating adrift it had last heard the sounds of the human voice 4 months prior, but that was a lone voice and the crew seems to have last moved a year ago. There are no challenges and 2 gems. The owner @EVe is active, has been messaged by @Blue, has answered and agreed that the guild can be deleted - but also said in chat: "I will probably start a new guild soon that is similar [...]". If that's true, @EVe could repurpose the existing one, and deletion would make little sense. Currently discussing it in chat there.
 * One Blood Guild!: Great topic, but has de facto been swallowed up by the Ghost Ship guild.
 * P90 Workouts
 * Paleo Diet
 * Parkour Practitioners!: Was suggested in guild chat, but doesn't look that inactive.
 * Perfect Day
 * Pirateship Guild: Old dead guild connected to the hackerspace p.irateship. Chat long dead, guild leader still active in Habitica, the other 3 genuine guild members inactive, no challenges, 4 gems. Guild leader has been messaged by @Dewines (no answer yet), pirates (from Pirate Cove, not from the hackerspace) have started posting in chat. Waiting for reaction.
 * Polyphasic Sleepers: Sighted by @SabreCat. A very dead duplicate of @SabreCat's active Naps of Power: Polyphasic Sleepers guild. Three chat posts (last one September 2014), guild leader was active recently (last logged in 25 November 2015), no challenges, 4 gems. Not contacted yet. @SabreCat will probably do the contacting because @SabreCat is planning to try to consolidate most of the sleeping-themed guilds - it's being discussed in @SabreCat's Naps of Power: Polyphasic Sleepers guild and in the Pirate Cove.
 * Resilience
 * Rock Climbers: Sighted by @Ariel. Is a duplicate of the more active The Climbers Guild and should be deleted. Chat is dead (last post August 2015, hailing produced no reaction), guild leader last logged in 01 June 2015, no challenges (there were three which have been dealt with and deleted by the elves), no gems. @Dewines sent a PM to the guild leader on 16 December 2015 - no answer yet.
 * /r/Team_Japaneseのギルド: Sighted by @keyes. One of several Japanese learning guilds (Japanese Deep Cave Adventurers, Kotoba Miners, /r/Team_Japaneseのギルド, The JRPG Club, The LearnJapanese Guild, Wanikani, WaniKani<3, and possibly some more). How many are there, and which are worth keeping? And who of the pirates can read the chat and challenges and see if there's interesting content? In this guild, last chat that didn't just say "Hi!" in Japanese was in December 2014, guild leader last logged in November 2014, there are no challenges and 4 gems, and their guild name is referring to this Japanese language learning Reddit website.
 * /SIG/: Interesting links, some challenges - someone put a lot of work into this. But is anyone still using it?
 * Social Justice Guild: Is there any other guild covering this topic properly? If not, this guild might be worth reviving. People keep joining and asking if it's alive. (There is Effective Altruists, though - should it be merged in there?) 6 chat posts ranging from October 2014 to 24 November 2015, guild leader last logged in May 2015, two challenges (one with an active creator - no other active participants, but nice challenges), four gems. Not contacted yet.
 * Slimming World Habiticians
 * Stack Exchange Addicts: Sighted by @Blue. Last post December 2014, guild leader last logged in January 2014, one abandoned challenge (might be worth moving to one of the coder guilds), four gems. Not contacted yet.
 * Stormageddon et al.
 * The StudySpo Guild: Sighted by @Dewines. Last post was December 2014, guild leader last logged in end of August 2015. No challenges. (There was one abandoned one which the elves dealt with.) 3 guild gems. There are other study guilds, so this one may be surplus to requirements. @Dewines hailed the guild members in chat and got no response. The guild is probably ready for takeover.
 * Team UfYH: The guild refers to the popular (Warning: Linked site contains swearwords!) UfYH website which is dedicated to providing motivation and checklists for doing household chores and making one's home less messy, and is apparently rather good at it. The guild was once very active, it has several challenges, and it's good at editing out the swearwords contained in the original UfYH website. The guild leader is still logging into Habitica. But guild chat stopped in May 2015. @Snellopy sighted the guild and Admiral @Alys already looked into it, but it's still undecided if the pirates will take any action at all, and which one. One reason to let it stand is that if it were removed, and a new one created later, it might not be so good at avoiding swearwords, and would create additional work for the Habitica moderators.
 * The 0/0 Club: This guild lost its purpose when the level cap was removed.
 * The Archons: A guild with a roleplaying approach to doing tasks. (There are several: Fighters Guild, Rangers Guild, The Arcane Warrior's Syndicate, The Archons, The Society of Flash and Guile, and probably lots more - please add to this alphabetical list if you find others! It will help to get an overview.) Has beautiful challenges, lots of creative chat, but is currently sadly inactive. Guild leader @rocabella77 last logged in August 2015. Elves and pirates are still working on what to do with the challenges and the guild.
 * The Chess Club: Was inactive for a while, but revived, so it's currently not a target. Hailed in chat by pirate @Blue (29 November 2015). Last chat December 2015, guild leader last logged in 30 November 2015, no challenges, 4 gems.
 * The LearnJapanese Guild: Sighted by @keyes. One of several Japanese learning guilds (Japanese Deep Cave Adventurers, Kotoba Miners, /r/Team_Japaneseのギルド, The JRPG Club, The LearnJapanese Guild, Wanikani, WaniKani<3, and possibly some more). How many are there, and which are worth keeping? And who of the pirates can read the chat and challenges and see if there's interesting content? This guild looks slightly active, chat is sparse but existing (last post 24 November 2015), guild leader last logged in June 2015, there are no challenges and 4 gems.
 * The Omniscients: A nice thought, but already covered by the Today I Learned guild.
 * The Roman Soldiers: Spotted by @Dewines. No chat, active guild leader, the only other genuine guild member is inactive, no challenges, 4 gems. Not contacted yet.
 * Triathletes: Triathletes are few and very silent, apparently.
 * the social boldness challenge
 * The Society of Flash and Guile (Such a pity!)
 * UK PC Gamers
 * WaniKani<3: Sighted by @keyes. One of several Japanese learning guilds (Japanese Deep Cave Adventurers, Kotoba Miners, /r/Team_Japaneseのギルド, The JRPG Club, The LearnJapanese Guild, Wanikani, WaniKani<3, and possibly some more). This guild is new and active with an active leader, but clearly duplicates the other (bigger and older) Wanikaniguild. @Mara the Marine Marauder hailed it in chat and asked if they want to merge. It turned out the new guild was created because the guild leader of the old guild was inactive. Now there's an ongoing discussion about merging in chat of both guilds. Has one challenge which its active owner could move emself.
 * Yandere

Guilds with Similar Topics
For some topics, there are several guilds, and it helps to get an overview which ones there are first, before deciding which ones to delete or privatize. That's what this section is for. If you find more guilds belonging to a topic already covered here, please add them! If you find an inactive guild and you know there are at least two more guilds with a similar topic, and some of them might benefit from merging, please add the topic!

Both the list and sub-lists are alphabetical.
 * Learning Japanese:
 * Japanese Deep Cave Adventurers
 * Kotoba Miners
 * /r/Team_Japaneseのギルド
 * The JRPG Club
 * The LearnJapanese Guild
 * Wanikani
 * WaniKani<3
 * Roleplaying (especially roleplaying inside Habitica, and roleplaying approaches to doing tasks):
 * Fighters Guild
 * Rangers Guild
 * The Arcane Warrior's Syndicate
 * The Archons
 * The Society of Flash and Guile
 * Sleep:
 * Asynchronous
 * Naps of Power: Polyphasic Sleepers
 * nyctophilia (possibly)
 * Polyphasic Sleepers
 * The Sleeping Guild.

Guilds We Fought in Battle
So far, we have only fought one guild-vs.-guild battle:

As far as we know, this was the first guild-vs.-guild battle in Habitican history, and contributed to one of Captain Mara's contributor tiers in the "Challenger" category.
 * 1) We attacked Gryffindor Houseon June 15, 2015, and did battle with them for 13 days. As weapons, we used habits asking the participants to "Bravely complete, or work for half an hour on, a terrifying task!". The Gryffindors fought very bravely, and both groups were ahead at several times, but in the end, the pirates won!

We're hoping to do more battles in the future! If your guild (or other group of people) is interested, please let us know!

Captured Guilds
"Captured" means that at some point, one of the pirates became guild leader ("captain").

So far, we have captured 52 guilds in total. Many of those got sunk (i.e., deleted or made private) in the end. (If you want to know how many exactly, look at the section about Sunk Guilds - this wiki page is easier to update if the numbers only appear in one place.)

The first 50 captured guilds have been moved to the Archive. Those here are just the latest:

@Blue lead the attack on the very dead Korean-speaking guild We are the good Duck, became captain there, and created Korea-themed booty challenges, all of which have been won by now. The guild is now ready for deletion or repurposing. The Sugar Slayers were sighted, hailed and captured by @Ariel. The guild topic (type I diabetics support) is already covered by the more active diabetic support guild The SugarKill Gang. Booty challenges will probably be up soon.  Let the future be as bootyful!

Sunk Guilds
"Sunk" means that the guild either got deleted or made private. Making an inactive guild private is frequently used as an alternative to deleting it because, in case any of the guild members ever returns to Habitica and would like to have the guild back or look something up in there, the private guild serves as a backup and can easily be turned into a public guild again. (In some other cases, though, old guilds get privatized because the new guild leader is actually repurposing them as active private guilds, usually with a different name and topic and no intent to conserve the old chat and challenges.)

In Pirate English, if the guild is described as "destroyed", "wrecked", "shot to smithereens", etc., that means it got deleted. If it is described as being sunk in one piece, e.g., "scuttled", "foundered", "submerged", etc., that means it was turned into a private guild (but will most likely be inactive in the future). If it "was turned into a submarine", it was turned into a private guild with an active guild leader intending to use the guild (often with a different name and topic). This terminology is just for the fun of gamification, though - it's not an exact science, please don't take it too seriously! If you use different descriptions when adding a new sunk guild to the list, no one will keelhaul you for it.

So far, we have sunk 33 guilds in total. We captured 16 of those first (they appear in both the Sunk Guilds and Captured Guilds list) and sunk the other 17 without capturing them. 21 of the sunk guilds got destroyed beyond repair, 10 got scuttled in one piece, 2 were turned into submarines.

The first 30 sunk guilds have been moved to the Archive. Those here are just the latest:

@MEmry decided to destroy her own ship Clutter Busters because another decluttering guild had sprung up since. (But Clutter Busters was first - and very useful!) So she generously handed out the gems from its hold (via decluttering-themed booty challenges), gave the crew ample opportunity to jump ship and swim to the handy rescue vessel Decluttering Devils, rigged the ship with explosives, and then we all admired the detonation from afar. (Looked like @that_one_girl snuck in some fireworks, too!) The Polyglot Guild duplicated the existing and active Language Hackersguild. So, after @Dewines had sighted it and had hailed the guild leader and got no response, the guild was scuttled in one piece. The guild Longhorns escaped @Dewines's first attempt to capture it - for a short while. @Wunderkind, a long-standing Longhorns crew member, took over captaincy there from the old inactive captain and renamed the guild State School Spirit. (In the course of those events, @Wunderkind also joined the Pirate Cove and became a Habitican pirate.) A few weeks later, however, attempts to revive the guild had failed, and @Wunderkind surrendered the guild to @Dewines. It got named Guild up for grabs (was State School Spirit) for a short while, then it was deleted. (There were no gems left to plunder.) 

Conquering Guilds: Tips & Tricks
Before conquering a guild, you might want to know which end results are possible. These are: This usually happens if the guild is utterly inactive and/or useless, none of the guild members want to keep the guild alive anymore, and there's no interesting content in the chat or elsewhere in the guild that is worth preserving. (A guild can be useless while still being active - usually if another, more active guild with the same topic exists, and everyone decides to move over to that other guild and give up the "duplicate" guild.) If there are gems in the guild bank, the guild usually gets captured and plundered before deletion. But there's no guarantee for that - an admin may decide to delete the guild immediately, with gems and all. (Why wait when you can get rid of a dead guild now?) If the admin is generous, e can put the "lost booty" in the Pirate Cove's guild bank directly (that's how we got our unusually high number of gems there) - but that's a favor, not something we're entitled to! Making an inactive guild private is frequently used as an alternative to deleting it because, in case any of the guild members ever return to Habitica and would like to have the guild back or look something up in there, the private guild serves as a backup and can easily be turned into a public guild again. Privatization is a good solution if the guild contains interesting content, or someone apparently spent a lot of effort creating it (for example by creating a special guild logo or a complicated challenge), or the guild has a serious and sensitive topic (for example offering support for people with a special health condition), or the guild leader hasn't been away from Habitica for very long yet. If a guild contains interesting content and gets privatized, only its members will still be able to see that content, though, and no new members can join or even find the guild without invitation. If the content (challenges, tips and tricks in chat, links in the guild description, etc.) would still be useful in other Habitican guilds, it should be "rescued" and moved there before the guild gets privatized or deleted. A privatized guild usually keeps its gems. (In some other cases, though, old guilds get privatized as a form of repurposing: There's someone around who would like to have eir own private guild but doesn't have the gems to create one, and there's a guild that would otherwise be deleted - so that person gets the guild, the guild gets privatized by an admin, the new leader throws all the old members out, renames and redesigns the guild, and uses it as eir new private guild, without intent to preserve any of the old content.) That means, the guild stays public but gets a different name and topic and a new leader. That usually happens if, at the same time, there are both a guild that would usually get deleted, and a person who would otherwise create a new guild. That means, the guild keeps its topic and stays public. In some cases, pirates wandering into a guild might serve as a "wake-up call", and the members might decide to try to improve the guild a little - find a new active guild leader, change and improve the guild name and/or description slightly, maybe broaden the guild topic, create new challenges, and/or promote the guild in the The Bulletin Board 📌 or the Tavern. But basically, the guild stays the same (and the guild members are in no way obliged to take any of these actions). This usually happens if pirates ask in guild chat: "Is this guild still active? Is anyone here still interested in keeping it?", and people answer that yes, they want to keep it. If it's already clear from the start that the guild will stay - for example if it's quite active but just has an inactive leader - this isn't usually a job for the pirates! If the active members want a new leader, they can request a leadership change themselves. To quote Admiral @Alys on the matter: "I'd prefer that the Pirates sought new leaders for only guilds that are dead, or near-dead (or ones where the current leader does want to resign, of course). I think it's best that you don't suggest to active communities that you might look for a new leader from outside the community. I'm concerned that it would make the guild members not feel at ease in their own space." Of course, you're free to join the guild and voice your opinions there - that you'd like to have the guild name/description changed slightly, that you'd like to have a new active leader who can do this, that you think the guild could benefit from being promoted in the The Bulletin Board 📌 or with an entry in the Guilds Guide or its own wiki guild page, or whatever - but that's not a pirate action, it's something that you can do as a guild member there, independently of the Pirate Cove (if you want to). You might also want to know some technical details - especially which of these things can be done by Habiticans themselves, and which can only be done by admins:
 * The guild gets deleted:
 * The guild gets privatized:
 * The guild gets repurposed:
 * The guild stays more or less as it is:
 * Guild deletion and guild privatization can only be done by an admin.
 * Guild leadership can be changed by the current guild leader or by an admin. If the guild leader is still active, it's usually eir decision to change guild leadership (or not), and the guild leader should do the change emself (unless there are technical difficulties, then the admin can help).
 * For moving old challenges out of to-be-deleted guilds, please check the details in our sister guild Elven Grove and their wikia guild page.

There's more technical info on the wiki page about Guilds (especially the sections about Transferring Guild Ownership and Guild Deletion) and the wiki page about Challenges.

If things don't go as planned, it can also be helpful to check for known guild bugs in the GitHub issues. For a more detailed search, here's GitHub's very helpful help page for searching issues. There is a label "groups" (meaning both guilds and parties), and here's the list of all open issues with that label - but relevant issues don't always get labeled. Apparently you can't add labels to issues as a normal GitHub user.

Some GitHub issues that are good to know about:
 * Guild leaders can assign a new guild leader - only, there's a known bug: The new guild leader can only be chosen from the first 15 members of the guild (the ones that are visible in the Members list). The bug has been documented in GitHub issues 2160 and 1806. Currently, there are two workarounds: You can either ask an admin to assign the new guild leader, or you can use the "plankwalking" method and kick members out of the guild until the person that you want to make leader is among the first 15 that show up in the Members list. (Obviously, this is rather rude and should only be done with small guilds and/or inactive members, and with proper warning.)
 * Issue 3937 is a precedence case where @Lemoness decided that "Guild leadership should only be reassigned when the Guild leader requests it, unless they've left the site completely for a long period of time, such as a year." However, some small inactive guilds got deleted or repurposed lately where the guild leader had last logged in more recently, sometimes only 3 months before deletion. In the end, it's the admins' decision - but the longer the guild leader has been away, the more likely a guild leadership change or guild deletion becomes. If the guild leader hasn't been away for very long (but doesn't react to messages and chat), it's more likely that the guild gets privatized instead.

There is also a Trello card discussing guilds.

So, now that you know about the technicalities, how do you start attacking a guild? (When the guild finally gets deleted, privatized, or leadership changed by an admin, that admin will send the guild leader a standard message, too. But the admin's message will only inform the guild leader about it being done, whereas the pirates' message asks the guild leader for their opinion and gives em a chance to intervene.) The guild leader should have some time (at least a week) to answer. If you know that no one else messaged the guild leader yet and if you're sure that the guild is a good candidate for boarding/deletion, you can message em before talking about the guild in Pirate Cove chat. If you aren't sure (whether someone already sent a message, or whether the guild is a good target at all, or what you should write in the message), please talk about it in Pirate Cove chat first.
 * First, find a good target! It should be a guild that has been inactive for a while, and/or has the same topic as another, more popular guild that it could be merged with. Many such guilds are already listed in the Guilds in Our Sights - you can also pick one of those and do the next steps with it if they haven't been done yet.
 * If no other pirate has done so yet, "hail" the guild to see if anyone in there is still alive: Ask in the target guild's chat if anyone's still interested in keeping the guild, or if it can be deleted or repurposed (or maybe privatized). If you don't know what to say exactly, check in the last few conquered guilds how things started there! Then feel free to use your own words, adapted to the situation in the guild. Give the guild members at least a week to answer.
 * Talk about the results in Pirate Cove guild chat - either before or after messaging the guild leader (see next step). Discuss whether it would be a good idea to target the guild, and what should probably happen to it (Boarding? Deletion? Repurposing? Privatizing? Or does one of the old members there want to take over and become guild leader?) Check if the guild is already listed among the Guilds in Our Sights. If not (and if it hasn't been discarded as a target), please add the guild to the Guilds in Our Sights list, or get someone who knows how to edit the wiki to do it for you. It is helpful if you add relevant details: When was the last (non-piratic) chat post? When did the guild owner last log in? Are there challenges in the guild? Gems in the guild bank? Interesting content in the chat, guild description, or challenges, that is worth saving? If there is another guild with the same topic, which one? Has the guild leader been contacted yet, and did e answer? Did the other pirates mention anyhting important in guild chat when the guild was discussed?
 * At some point, the guild leader should be messaged (if e didn't react in chat). This makes sense even if the guild leader hasn't logged into Habitica for many months because, depending on their settings, many Habiticans get email notification for private messages. In the message (which should be as polite and respectful as pirates can be), the guild leader should be asked if e's still interested in the guild, or if it can be deleted/repurposed/merged with another guild, or if e'd prefer if it was privatized. If the guild leader owns challenges in the guild, those should also be mentioned. If there are gems in the guild bank, it's fair to also tell the guild leader that e can get them back by making a challenge with the gems and declaring emself as the winner. And, to quote Admiral @Alys, "the guild leaders could also be reassured that if the guild is given to a new owner or deleted, the admin who does it will give them back their gems".

... To be continued.

Guild-vs.-Guild Battles: The Technical and Organizational Aspects
A "guild vs. guild" (or "team vs. team" - not restricted to guilds) battle challenge can be made simply by making a challenge with only two habits which are identical except for one of them saying "Fight for team A!", the other saying "Fight for team B!". (Of course, the habits should also say what the participants are expected to do.) Then the Habitica Swagger API interface can be used to keep track of the overall values of the two habits. These habit values correspond (roughly, but close enough) to how often the habits have been clicked. The group with the higher habit value wins. The participants simply join the challenge, decide which team they want to fight for, and click the habit of that team whenever they do the work required by the habit.

If the challenge creator wants to find out who fought for which team, they can see this by looking at the CSV file which shows who clicked which habit. The CSV can be downloaded directly by clicking on the "Export to CSV" button in the challenge, or by using the Habitica Swagger API interface again. (Of course, you could also make a to-do "State your loyalty in the Extra Notes!" instead.) This can be helpful if you intend to make token challenges for all the winners (and maybe 2nd place token challenges for all participants of the other team) after the battle.

The habit values correspond to the sum total of work done. If you'd rather declare the winning team by average work done by each team member, you could also divide the habit values through the number of team members, then compare the results.

The mechanics are also discussed on this Trello card(in the April 29, 2015 comment).

The challenge should contain a disclaimer saying approximately this:

"Disclaimer: All this is supposed to be fun for everyone involved! You are not required to participate in the challenge, no matter which guild you belong or don't belong to. Also, if this challenge makes you feel uncomfortable, please talk to the challenge creator and/or the guild leader of [the guilds involved] and/or a Habitica moderator, and we'll try to fix it! We don't want to violate community guidelines and don't want anyone to feel really, non-fictionally, threatened."

If you are planning a guild-vs.-guild fight, it is good manners to contact the guild leaders of the involved guilds first (if they are active). If you're not planning a surprise attack, you can also ask the guild members first via guild chat. If you're not sure how to proceed (especially if one of the guild leaders is inactive), please read the community guildelines first, then contact a Habitica admin/moderator and ask.

The guilds involved should be chosen wisely - they should consist of members who actually like such a fight instead of feeling annoyed by it.

Different Flags
(Flags not shown to avoid spoilers and copyright issues.)


 * Standard: http://i.imgur.com/oOPGubk.jpg


 * Valentine: http://img0.etsystatic.com/058/0/8817204/il_340x270.716391514_krn0.jpg


 * Pi Day: http://i.ebayimg.com/00/$%28KGrHqYOKiwE5hhLRyDJBOep6qUI8!_35.JPG


 * Easter: http://s7.photobucket.com/user/Cookgirl/media/2013/EasterPirate_zps4e2c6e3a.png.html


 * International Talk Like a Pirate Day: http://wallpaperbang.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Talk-Like-a-Pirate-Day-19-Sep-Wallpapers.jpg


 * Halloween: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6045/6300391097_108bea7248_m.jpg
 * Thanksgiving: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3064/3063761200_3e481fdbee.jpg


 * Christmas: http://www.theflagshop.co.uk/ekmps/shops/speed/images/christmas-pirate-flag-5074-p.jpg


 * New Year: http://rlv.zcache.com/pirate_new_years_eve_party_invitation_postcard-r83e5412cda1d4e1886fbabd79d6db4b9_vgbaq_8byvr_512.jpg

Obscure Treasure Map to Pirate Music
Mara's recommendations:
 * Go look for Bilgemunky's old podcasts! (And then look for more from the bands mentioned there!) Try googling for "bilgemunky rss_feed_bmr", I found this to be the page with the best overview, and otherwise hard to find.
 * "Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag" has a nice piraty soundtrack that can be found in various places on Youtube.
 * Then there are "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" (original and cover version) - also on Youtube.
 * And, of course, all the Disney-copyrighted stuff for "Pirates of the Carribean". Chicken_on_a_Raft.png
 * Thanks to @Castanwydden for digging up Jimmie MacGregor's version of "Henry Martin"!
 * Then there's also the chicken on a raft.
 * The halftime show at the Viking Horde vs. Sparrow Warriors Super Bowl III serves as a good excuse to put that link here, too.
 * And so much more...