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, @Phantom818, 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
There is another guild named Hogwarts, and another one called Dumbledore's Army. All three have the same topic (general Harry Potter fandom). No attempts to merge the three have been made yet - but since all three are currently active with active guild leaders, it's probably not worth the effort right now.
 * Former captain @Jameson officially abandoned The Abandoned Camp (it had already been rather abandoned before that - just more unofficially -, and had had the same name) and named @Mara the Marine Marauder the new captain, and was even generous enough to deliberately leave his four gems in the guild. Four booty challenges were made and finally, after several months, all won - they asked participants to complete one of their own abandoned projects. But now there are more booty challenges to be won there because @Mara the Marine Marauder puts challenges distributing Pirate Cove guild gems into The Abandoned Camp. (That way, we can both keep our amazingly full Pirate Cove treasure chest to brag with it, and share the gems among the pirates. That wouldn't technically be possible in the Cove itself because, if a guild owner creates a guild challenge with a gem prize, the prize is always taken from the guild bank - there is no option to pay the prize from one's personal gems.) There are some vague plans 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, along with other places inviting more roleplay and being represented by guilds, and maybe a tour that involves visiting them and performing tasks there - but no one found the time to do something about them yet. Former captain @Jameson expressed hopes of hearing wild stories and rumors about that camp in the future - let's not disappoint him!
 * @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!
 * 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.
 * @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.
 * @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.
 * 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. Pirates can win the plunder by going sugar-free for 24 hours.
 * The Baron's Civility Parlor: Surprisingly empty in both description and communication, this guild's purpose is a mystery... In fact, it escaped the pirates' notice for a time, that is, until @Ariel sighted it. @Alys was about to light the cannons of destruction, but decided there may be treasure aboard... and there was. @Ariel claimed captaincy and created challenges for pirates to establish their own coats of arms.
 * While in the process of adopting the abandoned challenges there, pirate @keyes also stepped up to become the new headmaster of the rather active Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. (The last headmaster had magically vanished more than a year before.) Being both a Harry Potter fan and a pirate, @keyes is planning to keep this position and keep the school running. It is unclear if and when the school's gems will be used for challenges, and if those can be called booty challenges or just plain guild challenges (or both).
 * Dr. Phil's Redhawks - Talk about an abandoned ship! This guild had virtually no description, no guild chat, and an inactive guild owner. @Phantom818 boarded the guild and created challenges to distribute the three gems. Since there's no idea what the original guild owner had in mind, two of the four challenge tasks relate to Dr. Phil, while the other two are general reading/learning tasks.

Guilds in Our Sights
This is a list of guilds we're currently watching because at first sight they either appear to be inactive, are duplicates of other guilds on the same topic, or we might try to capture or sink them soon for another reason. (It doesn't necessarily mean that the guilds are really inactive or otherwise useless and that we'll really target them, only that we're observing 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 turns out to be worth saving (or if the guild leader says e'd like to keep it) it will also show on this list - so, if another pirate finds it, e can look it up here and find out that it's been discussed before, with the conclusion to keep it.

For some subjects there are several guilds, and this list helps to get an overview on which ones exist before deciding which ones to delete or privatize. That's what the section Guilds with Similar Topics at the bottom is for.
 * 300 Sighted by cTheDragons. A guild for fans of the movie 300 and/or who want to follow a Spartan path to fitness. There was some early conversation about training for the Spartan Race, which is still a thing, so there is the potential for revival. Having said that, there are other fitness guilds and having a guild solely focused on one particular event may not be viable. However, the last post was on 19 Aug 15 and the guild leader last logged in 10 Nov 15 so though it looks like the guild is dying, I don't think we can declare it dead yet. Just keep watching.
 * Aperture Science Adventure Enrichment Guild: Entertaining, but currently populated by guild creator + pirates (one of which does have a genuine interest in it though).
 * Asynchronous: One of the several sleep guilds (see Guilds with Similar Topics). A guild for people with irregular sleep schedules. Last chat November 2015 (the post before is from August 2015), several pages of chat, active guild leader (last login January 2nd, 2016) @Veovis Muad'dib, one active challenge (owner is the guild leader), 3 gems. The plan is to merge this guild with the more active and more general Naps of Power: Habiticans for Better Sleep guild and privatize or plunder and delete the original guild. Hailed by @Phantom818 via PM to guild leader @Veovis Muad'dib, awaiting reply.
 * Augnowrimo: Sighted by @tenko. A guild for August 2014 Novel Writing Month Challenge participants. Last chat September 2014, inactive guild leader @Jessie (last login September 22nd, 2015), no challenges, 4 gems. Hailed by @tenko in the guild chat and via PM to the guild leader on Jan 10th, 2016, awaiting reply.
 * Australians on HabitRPG: Sighted by @Snellopy. Duplicates the more active The Land Downunder. Last chat February 2015, active guild leader @johnball (last login January 7th, 2016), no challenges, 4 gems. Hailed in guild chat by @Dewines in early December 2015, no response as of January 2016.
 * Bar Slayers: Sighted by @Blue. Guild for people trying to pass the bar exam. Can be merged into the Barrister's Inn (guild for lawyers, law students, and similar). Last chat January 2015, several pages of chat, guild leader last logged in August 2013, no challenges, no gems. Hailed in chat by @Ariel, guild leader not messaged yet.
 * Bitcoin / Cryptocurrency Enthusiasts: Sighted by @Blue. Last chat January 2016 (2 previous posts are from September and April 2015; there are several pages of chat), inactive guild leader (last login October 28th, 2014), 3 challenges (one with an active owner), 4 gems. Not contacted yet. Are the challenges interesting/helpful? Is there interesting stuff in the 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 one-line chat posts, active guild leader (last login January 10th, 2016), no challenges, 4 gems. Not contacted yet.
 * CakePHP: Sighted by @Snellopy. Last chat May 2014, inactive guild leader (last login on December 14th, 2014), no challenges, 4 gems. Hailed by @Ariel in guild chat in December 2015.
 * Chores (5 icons): Sighted by @Snellopy. Last chat November 2014 (prior to pirates chats), active guild leader @Soloana (last login January 7th, 2016), 3 simple one-task challenges (dishes, laundry, trash) which contain little icons: dishes, laundry, trash created by @Soloana instead of emoticons. Originally @Soloana 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 board the guild. Hailed by @Dewines in guild chat on November 27th, 2015, no reply as of January 2016. @Soloana (probably) hasn't been messaged yet. @Ariel is interested in turning the guild into a general chores/housekeeping guild - please coordinate further activities with @Ariel!
 * Copaxone club: Last post November 2015, 5 one-line chats in 10 months, 1 challenge without any tasks and the guild creator as its only participant, 4 gems. Owner is active (last login January 9th, 2016) but hasn't responded to private messages.
 * Culture Me!: This guild looks active as of January 2016.
 * Cute and Cool Things on Tumblr: Sighted by @Blue. One of the several tumblr related guilds (see Guilds with Similar Topics). Similar to i'm probably on tumblr right now and Tumblr Crowd. Last chat January 2015, about two pages of chat, active leader (last login January 9th, 2016), no challenges, 4 gems. Hailed by @Blue in chat on 12 December 2015 (no reaction as of January 10th 2016). Guild leader not messaged yet. Guild looks like a candidate for deletion.
 * Dumbledore's Army: This guild isn't currently a target. In the long run, though, the three guilds Hogwarts, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and Dumbledore's Army might want to merge (see Guilds with Similar Topics), but at the moment all three are active and have active guild leaders, so it's probably not worth the effort yet.
 * E-Commerce: Sighted by @Blue. Last log July 2015, 8 posts with several links and infos - are any of those worth saving/posting elsewhere? Inactive owner (last login February 24th, 2015), no challenges, 4 gems. Not contacted yet.
 * Edu-Geek: Sighted by @tenko. A guild made for IT educators. Last log August 6th, 2015, captain last sighted on January 12th, 2016, 1 dead challenge, 4 gems in the coffer. Hailed by @tenko in the guild chat on January 10th, 2016
 * Festivids Sighted by @Dewines. Last chat November 2014. The guild was active until that point so lots of earlier chat. It is a guild for members of the Dreamwidth Festivid community. Owner and one guild member are still logging in to Habitica but seem to have abandoned the guild. There are no challenges, but there are 3 gems left. @Dewines has hailed the guild in chat.This guild is probably a good candidate for privatisation as new members can be recruited from the active Festivid DW community and it therefore doesn't need to appear in the public guild list.
 * Fitbit Warriors: Sighted by @Ariel and @tenko. Last log August 28th, 2014, altogether 4 one-line entries in the logbook since August 10th, 2014, captain last seen on August 10th, 2014, no challenges present, 4 gems found in the strongbox. Hailed by @Ariel in chat on December 28th, 2015, and by @tenko in chat and via PM to the captain on January 10th and 12th 2016 respectively. Looks ready for boarding, plundering and sinking.
 * Fit Anime Clan: Small guild (5 genuine members) that more or less duplicates The Otaku Dōjō and the Anime Club- 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 in chat.
 * Five for Fighting: A relatively new guild for hockey fans still gathering up members, last post January 4th, 2016.
 * FR: Arcane Members: Targeted by @MEmry. Last chat October 14th, 2015, only 7 posts in chat, active guild leader (last login January 7th, 2016), no other active genuine member, no challenges, 4 gems. Several pirates posted in chat over 2 months period - no reaction. @MEmry messaged the guild leader on November 29th, 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.
 * Future Procrastinators of Tomorrow: Sighted by @tenko. Last log September 4th, 2015, only 12 entries in the logbook since April 2014. Captain last seen on May 28th, 2014, 1 dead challenge and 4 gems in the strongbox found aboard. Elves are working on the dead challenge. Looks like a fair candidate for abordage and sinking.
 * Gamification: Sighted by @Snellopy. Last chat January 6th, 2016, inactive guild leader (last login October 27th, 2015) no challenges, 3 gems. Not contacted yet.
 * GW Community School: Sighted by @tenko. Captain is missing and was last seen in July 2015. Logbook contains 11 entries for the last 3 years, last logbook in January 2015, previous one in April 2014. Treasure coffer contains 4 gems, there are no challenges. Hailed by @tenko on January 10th, 2016 (chat and private message), awaiting reply.
 * Hogwarts: This guild isn't currently a target. In the long run, though, the three guilds Hogwarts, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and Dumbledore's Army might want to merge (see Guilds with Similar Topics), but at the moment all three are active and have active guild leaders, so it's probably not worth the effort yet.
 * Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: This guild isn't currently a target (and is already in the hands of a pirate anyway - Headmaster @keyes is both a Harry Potter fan and a pirate). In the long run, though, the three guilds Hogwarts, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and Dumbledore's Army might want to merge (see Guilds with Similar Topics), but at the moment all three are active and have active guild leaders, so it's probably not worth the effort yet.
 * If Not Now, When?: Sighted by @Blue. Last chat December 2014, two posts total in the chat, active guild leader (last login January 9th, 2016), 1 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), 3 gems. Not contacted yet.
 * ImgurFIT Guild: Sighted by @Blue. Last chat May 2015, inactive guild leader (last login March 2015), no challenges, 4 gems. Not contacted yet.
 * i'm probably on tumblr right now: Sighted by @Blue. One of the several tumblr related guilds (see Guilds with Similar Topics). A guild about tumblr in general, duplicates Tumblr Crowd and, to some degree, Cute and Cool Things on Tumblr. Last post January 2016, several pages of chat, active guild leader (last login January 10th, 2016), no challenges (there was an abandoned one that got deleted), no gems. Hailed by @Blue in chat on December 12th, 2015 guild leader @smallestbear accepted the inevitable fate of being boarded, conquered and sunk by the pirates with utmost dignity on January 9th, 2016, saying: "Hi friends :) As the "leader" or whatever of this guild, I am all in for deleting in deference to other guilds with more activity" and encouraged his remaining loyal crew members who stood by him till the end to board the ships of other tumblr related guilds: "So, everyone currently in this guild, go to one of the other tumblr guilds if you wanna be in one cause this one's going away in a week or so". Guild currently awaiting deletion.
 * Karma Vacation - Sighted by @Dewines. Apparently a duplicate of the similarly inactive Plurk Peeps guild also relating to Plurk (see Guilds with Similar Topics). Last post March 2015, 7 short posts totalling 34 words exchanged within the last 2 years, fairly active guild leader (last login December 31st, 2015), no challenges, 4 gems. Not hailed yet. Looks like a good candidate for plundering and deleting.
 * Kemetic Temple: Spotted by @Ariel while dealing with an abandoned challenge there, and discussed in the Elven Grove. A religious guild about Kemeticism (the contemporary revival of ancient Egyptian religion). Last chat July 2015, 8 chat posts, inactive guild leader (last login August 23rd, 2015), no challenges (anymore), 4 gems. Probably a candidate for privatization unless one of the guild members wants to take over. Hailed by @tenko in guild chat on January 10th, 2016. Awaiting reply.
 * Kotoba Miners: One of the several Japanese learning guilds (see Guilds with Similar Topics). Last chat before hailing was written in April 2015, guild leader is still active (as of 09 January 2016), there are no challenges and no gems, and their special learning method is via minecraft, with their own website. Not sure if this is a target or not: Guild leader @cheapshot 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. ", and also answered to the usual chat question "Is anyone still interested in this guild?" with "Of course! I just started using it again actually after a few months of hiatus." on 18 December 2015. Then a Japanese conversation between the guild leader @cheapshot and pirate @tenko ensued in which on January 7th, 2016 @cheapshot said: "I know this guild is not very active. It's a pity, but I don't use Habitica very often, and I'm rather fond of Todoist". On the same day he continued: "Lastly, those who are interested, please join the Kotoba Miners facebook site". However, on January 11th @cheapshot wrote a surrender note to pirate @tenko: "Sure man, if you want to kill the Kotoba Miners guild, be my guest. Cheers, Cheapshot". The guild is awaiting sinking, while pirates ready their cannons.
 * Learning Machines : Sighted by @tenko. Last log October 15th, 2015, altogether 7 entries were written in the logbook since January 28th, 2015, including 3 entries that said "Hello". Captain present on the deck as of January 12th, 2016, but there are no challenges. 4 gems still remain in the coffer. Hailed by @tenko in the chat and via PM on January 10th & 12th, 2016. Awaiting reply.
 * Liquid Courage : The guild isn't quite a duplicate of Alcoholics Anonymous - Lets Stop Together! because it's for everyone who wants to drink less, not "just" for alcoholics. Last genuine chat July 2015, only 6 posts, no challenge, 4 gems. Hailed by @Ariel in chat, @Lord Vlad volunteered to become guild leader (but wasn't highly interested) prior to the December 20th, 2015 update by @Alys: "The owner of this guild, Christopher Keele, last logged in on 06/19/2015, which is only a few months ago. Because of that, I'm not changing the guild leader yet. Lemoness has said that she'd prefer we'd wait until a year has passed. Since it sounds like this guild will continue on in mostly its current form, the leader will stay the same, at least for now". @Lord Vlad is currently thinking about creating a new challenge there.
 * Lockpicking: Sighted by @MCRadium. Last chat February 2015 (some interesting chat before, contains links where to buy lockpicks), inactive guild leader (last login July 7th, 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.
 * Minecraft and Minecrafter guilds (sighted by @Dewines) duplicate the Minecrafters guild (see Guilds with Similar Topics), which is much more active with 70 or so members, active chat and a number of challenges whereas Minecraft and Minecrafter only have a couple of old posts and very few members. @Dewines messaged the captains and received no reply, which implies they are missing in action and their ships are ready for privatization (or boarding and looting). @Dewines volunteers to lead the assault and become the new captain of these ships before they are sunk. But since both captains have logged in less than a year ago, privatization is more likely.
 * Moonies: Sighted by @tenko. A guild devoted to the legendary warrior for love and justice, Sailor Moon. Last log made on January 13th, 2015, the captain went missing on June 28th, 2015, 4 crystals still remain in the coffer, and there are no demons left to conquer (no challenges). Hailed by @tenko in chat and via PM on January 12th, 2016, awaiting reply.
 * nyctophilia: Sighted by @Blue. One of the several sleep related guilds (see Guilds with Similar Topics), or maybe rather a "stay awake all night" guild. 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 no gems. The owner @EVe is active (last login January 9th, 2016), 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. @Phantom818 has followed up and sent @EVe (the guild leader) a private message detailing the options on how to proceed and asking which @EVe would prefer.
 * One Blood Guild!: Great topic, but has de facto been swallowed up by the Ghost Ship guild. Last post February 2015, previous post May 2014, altogether 12 posts in 2 years excluding pirate @Mara, the Marine Marauder's post, no challenges, 3 guild gems, semi-inactive guild leader (last login December 18, 2015).
 * Outdoor Corps: Sighted by @Phantom818. Currently not a target because last chat wasn't that long ago, the guild leader has become active again (after not logging in for several months), and its emphasis is much more on outdoor sports than Venture outside your lair 🌿, so it's not really a duplicate guild. Last chat November 2015, several pages of chat, active guild leader (last login January 10th, 2016), 2 challenges, 4 gems.
 * P90 Workouts: Last chat January 6th, 2016, inactive leader (last login July 30, 2014), no challenges, 4 gems. No contact yet.
 * Paleo Diet: Last chat September 2015, inactive leader (last login August 3rd, 2015), no challenges, 4 gems. Hailed by @Ariel in guild chat on December 19th, 2015, no reply as of January 10th, 2016.
 * Parkour Practitioners!: Was suggested in guild chat, but doesn't look that inactive.
 * Perfect Day Last two chat posts October 31 and November 02, 2015, previous chat January 2015, active leader (last login January 10th, 2015), no challenges, 2 gems. No contact yet.
 * Pirateship Guild: Old dead guild connected to the hackerspace p.irateship. The logbook is long empty, 3 logs in 2 years save for the Pirate Cove pirates' talk, the captain is present (last seen on January 9th, 2016) but his crew of 3 genuine members went missing, there are no challenges, and the treasure chest contains 4 gems. Group leader hailed via PM by @Dewines, no reply as of January 2016.
 * Plurk Peeps - Sighted by @Dewines, apparently a duplicate of the similarly inactive Karma Vacation (see Guilds with Similar Topics), contains a link to an inactive Plurk page. Last post March 2014, 7 short posts, recently active guild leader (last login December 28th, 2015), no challenges, 4 gems. Not hailed yet. Looks like a good candidate for plundering and deleting.
 * Polyphasic Sleepers: Sighted by @SabreCat. One of the several sleep related guilds (see Guilds with Similar Topics), similar to @SabreCat's active Naps of Power: Habiticans for Better Sleep. Last chat September 2014, 3 posts altogether within the last 2 years, very dead chat, guild leader was active recently (last login December 24th, 2015), no challenges, 4 gems. The plan is to privatize or plunder and delete this guild and bring interested guild members over to the Naps of Power: Habiticans for Better Sleep guild. Following this, @Blue has posted the link to the Naps of Power in the guild chat in December 2015, and @Phantom818 has sent @ProtoJ (guild leader) a private message detailing the options on how to proceed and asking which @ProtoJ woud prefer.
 * Resilience: Last genuine chat August 2015, two genuine posts, active guild leader (last login January 2nd, 2016) didn't react in chat, no challenges, 4 gems. First hailed in chat August 2015, guild leader @aloki not messaged yet. Duplicate of/related to Sustainable Living, The Urban Homesteader's Guild, inHabitants of Earth: the eco-friendly guild, Conscientious Consumption, and The Gardening Gnomes.
 * /r/Team_Japaneseのギルド: Sighted by @keyes. One of the several Japanese learning guilds (see Guilds with Similar Topics). The guild's name is is referring to this Japanese language learning Reddit website. Last chat that didn't just say "Hi!" in Japanese was in December 2014, inactive guild leader (last login November 10th, 2014), no challenges, 4 gems. No contact yet.
 * SHOUTYWAFFLES came to @Dewines's attention due to it having a plague victim aboard (i.e. there was an inappropriate word in the guild description). It's an odd little guild which seems to get about one post per month. The leader is inactive (last logged in 30/07/2015), there are no challenges and it still has 4 gems. @Dewines has hailed the guild (by SHOUTING at them). The outbreak of plague was promptly dealt with by @Alys and the guild is now safe to approach. However, it has a quirky charm and is unlike any other guild, so probably should be left to go its own way now there is no danger of infection.
 * /SIG/: Interesting links, some challenges - someone put a lot of work into this. But is anyone still using it? Last post October 2015, inactive guild leader (last login May 12th, 2015), 3 active challenges, 1 gem. No contact yet.
 * Social Anxiety and Depression Help: A small ship has been spotted by @Dewines, carrying only 2 survivors. While consulting privately, they were advised by the pirates to board a bigger ship where they can more easily find company. The coffer of their ship contains 1 gem and there are no challenges. Their fate is yet undecided, as the discussion takes place now. Please don't frighten them, and be as friendly as you can! (That means, no classic "Yarrrrr!" pirate boarding because of the serious and delicate topic.)
 * Social Justice Guild: Is there any other guild covering this topic properly? If not, this guild might be worth reviving (there is Effective Altruists, though - should it be merged in there?). People keep joining and asking if it's alive, 6 chat posts ranging from October 2014 to 24 November 2015, guild leader last logged in on May 3rd, 2015, 2 challenges are being taken care of by the Elves, 4 gems left in the coffer. Group leader @Nufah messaged by pirate @tenko on January 10th, 2016, asking @Nufah about her intentions as per the guild.
 * Stack Exchange Addicts: Sighted by @Blue. Last post December 2014, active guild leader (last login January 2nd, 2016), 1 abandoned challenge (might be worth moving to one of the coder guilds), 4 gems. Not contacted yet.
 * Stormageddon et al. Farily inactive guild with no guild description. Very small, just 5 members, last post July 2015, active guild leader (last login January 1st, 2016), no challenges, no guild gems. Not contacted yet (as pirates).
 * Team UfYH: Sighted by @Snellopy. 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. Though this guild is not very active (last post May 2015), it has 10 challenges, most of which people are still using. Another good reason for keeping it is that it's (mostly!) good at editing out the swearwords contained in the original UfYH website, also the guild leader is still logging into Habitica (last login January 9th, 2016). Therefore, the consensus seems to be that it should remain unboarded. 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. (Admiral @Alys has already looked into it and made the point about preserving it because of their care to avoid bad language.)
 * The Cozy Inn of the Drowsy Dragon -- Idiopathic Hypersomnia: Sighted by @tenko. One of the sleep related guilds (see Guilds with Similar Topics). A snuggly looking dragon adorned ship giving refuge to a handful of insomniacs and somnambulists. The ship's strongbox was found to contain 3 gems and no challenges. The captain, @Somnabat, was present on the deck as of January 12th, 2016. He and his crew members greeted the pirates in an amicable way, and when questioned about the low activity in the logbook (last entry written in September 2015) they shared plans for creating more entries, challenges and attracting new crew members in the near future. Pirates sailed away in peace wishing them best of luck in their endeavors.
 * The LearnJapanese Guild : Sighted by @tenko. One of the several Japanese learning guilds (see Guilds with Similar Topics). Last log November 24th, 2015, crew members seem to have stopped making entries in the logbook around October 2015. Captain last sighted on June 4th, 2015, no challenges spotted and 4 gems are still left in the chest. Hailed by @tenko in chat and via PM on January 10th, 2016, awaiting reply.
 * The Saiyans: Sighted by @tenko. Last logbook entry written on November 18th, 2015, captain last sighted on September 25th, 2015. There are 4 gems left in the coffer to be salvaged, and 1 challenge which the Elves are taking care of. Hailed by @tenko in chat and via PM on January 10th and 12th, 2016 respectively. Awaiting reply.
 * The StudySpo Guild: Sighted by @Dewines. Last post written in December 2014, guild leader last logged in the end of August 2015. No challenges. (There was one abandoned one which the elves dealt with.) 3 guild gems. There are other study related 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.
 * The 0/0 Club: This guild lost its purpose when the level cap was removed. Last post December 2015, inactive guild leader (last login August 23rd, 2015), no challenges, 4 gems. Not contacted yet.
 * The Archons: One of the several roleplaying guilds (see Guilds with Similar Topics). 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 on November 29th, 2015. Last chat January 8th, 2016, guild leader last login January 8th, 2016, no challenges, 4 gems.
 * The LearnJapanese Guild: Sighted by @keyes. One of the several Japanese learning guilds (see Guilds with Similar Topics). Last meaningful chat post November 24th, 2015, inactive guild leader (last login June 4th, 2015), there are no challenges and 4 gems. Not contacted yet.
 * The Omniscients: A nice thought, but already covered by the Today I Learned guild. Last post December 2015, inactive guild leader (last login July 12th, 2015), no challenges, 4 gems. Not contacted yet.
 * The Roman Soldiers: Spotted by @Dewines. No chat, active guild leader (last login January 10th, 2016), the only other genuine guild member is inactive, no challenges, 4 gems. Not contacted yet.
 * Tired Pessimists: Sighted by @Phantom818. Last chat September 2014, several pages of chat, active guild leader (last login January 10th, 2016), 1 challenge, 4 gems. Not hailed yet. Challenge is abandoned and very simple, but could be a nice time management challenge worth saving, maybe for the 📜 Library of Shared Lists or similar. Chat mentions some potentially helpful things: The website 7cups.com (about which there's already a Tavern challenge Become involved with 7 Cups of Tea!) and the books "Get It Done When You're Depressed" by Julie A. Fast and John D. Preston and "Mood Mapping" by Liz Miller. When hailing, we should probably suggest similar guilds. Searches for "mood", "depress", "anxiety", "chronic" bring up relevant ones. (They don't talk about tiredness/sleep in chat.) There isn't really a duplicate guild though.
 * Triathletes: This guild is no longer a target. For a long time, it had no chat messages and few members - but after being hailed by @Blue on New Year's Day 2016, Captain @Haukur bravely fought back, singlehandedly threw all pirates overboard, and saved and revived the guild. Apparently all that training had paid off!
 * the social boldness challenge: No challenges despite those being the guild purpose, empty chat, inactive guild leader (last login November 18th, 2015), 4 gems. Hailed by @Blue on January 1st, 2016.
 * The Society of Flash and Guile: One of the several roleplaying guilds (see Guilds with Similar Topics). Last chat December 2015, active guild leader (last login January 3rd, 2016), 2 challenges, 4 gems. Not contacted yet. (Please don't destroy! Chat and concept are entertaining and creative.)
 * Tumblr Crowd: Sighted by @Blue. One of the several tumblr guilds (see Guilds with Similar Topics). A guild about tumblr in general (and spending too much time there), duplicates i'm probably on tumblr right now and to some degree Cute and Cool Things on Tumblr. Last chat December 2014, about two pages of logbook, active captain (last login January 10th, 2016), one dead challenge (with a recently active owner and a 2 gem prize), 2 guild gems. Not hailed yet. Ship looks like a candidate for scuttling (privatizing).
 * Unicorns of Awesome: Discovered by @tenko. A small ship meandering the Seas of Habitica with no apparent purpose, crew members made the last entry in the logbook on October 26th, 2015, the captain is present on the ship as of January 11th, 2016. There are still 4 gems in the coffer to be salvaged, but no challenges. Hailed by @tenko in chat and via PM on January 10th and 12th, 2016. Awaiting reply.
 * UK PC Gamers: Small and fairly inactive guild. 3 active crew members aside the captain. Last logbook entry January 5th, 2016, previous August 19th, 2016, 4 one-liner logs in 8 months. Active captain (last login January 10th, 2016), one dead challenge, 4 guild gems. Not hailed yet.
 * WaniKani<3: Sighted by @keyes. One of the several Japanese learning guilds (see Guilds with Similar Topics). 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: Sighted by pirates. A 3 person guild with 13 words (3 chat lines) activity in the last 4 months, an active leader (last login January 2nd, 2016), no challenges, 4 gems. Hailed on January 10th, 2016 by @tenko.
 * 凡才の挑戦: Sighted by @tenko. A Japanese guild for Japanese crew members of Habitica Seas created 2 years ago, last log written in October 2014. Captain is missing as of January 2016, with last sighting in early February 2013. Treasure coffer holds 4 gems, there are no challenges. Hailed on January 10th, 2016 by @tenko. Looks like a candidate for boarding, plundering and sinking - especially since we know now that there is another general Japanese-speaking guild which Japanese-only speakers can join. (See Guilds with Similar Topics.)

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. These guilds aren't currently a target because most of them are moderately active. The guild leader of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, @keyes, is already a pirate (but also a Harry Potter fan who intends to stay guild leader and keep the guild running). In the long run, the two Hogwarts guilds and Dumbledore's Army might want to merge though. But at the moment, all three are active and have active guild leaders, so it's probably not worth the effort yet. These guilds were found by searching for "Potter", "Rowling", "Hogwarts", and "Gryffindor". If you find any more that aren't listed here yet, please add them! List was complete on January 13th 2016 (based on a search through all guilds for Japanese guild names, minus the ones we already know are dedicated to learning Japanese). The list was mostly needed to clarify which is the "main Japanese guild" (where you'd send Japanese newbies to if they want to speak Japanese). That one was put in the "Countries and Languages" section of the Guilds Guide. If any of the other ones are inactive, they are fair targets. This list is based on a search (on 23 December 2015) for the English word "Japan" in guild names or descriptions (as word or part of a word). It contains all the relevant guilds that came up in the search. The list doesn't contain guilds with the topic of learning languages in general, nor guilds that speak Japanese but have a different topic than learning this language. If there are any guilds that have the topic of learning Japanese but don't contain the English word "Japan" (for example because their name and description are completely in Japanese), the search didn't find those either. But if you find any, please add them! Which of these guilds are worth keeping? (We haven't gotten around to decide or fully discuss them yet.) Apparently pirates @keyes and @tenko are fluent in Japanese enough to read the chat and challenges and can see if there's any interesting content. Does anyone else speak Japanese well? If you do and would like to help dealing with Japanese-speaking guilds, please add your name in this paragraph or ask one of the more wiki-savvy pirates to do it for you! There are currently three guilds devoted to Minecraft. The first one is large and active, the other two only have 3 and 10 members respectively, a very few posts and no challenges. There are two guilds for RPG on LiveJournal/Dreamwidth/Plurk. Both are completely inactive (no posts for over a year), both have active leaders. This list is probably very incomplete and isn't even based on a search. If you find more such guilds, please add them! (Please note that these guilds are not necessarily targets for deletion or merging.) This list is based on a search (last repeated on 02 January 2016) for the English word "sleep" in guild names or descriptions (as word or part of a word). It contains all the relevant guilds that came up in the search. Since most of these guilds are inactive, there are efforts to merge most of them into the active  Naps of Power: Habiticans for Better Sleep guild which is about sleep in general. The following guilds are about tumblr in general. (There are also several other guilds about specific tumblr blogs.) @Blue found and mentioned them first, and a guild search for "tumblr" (last repeated on 08 January 2016) confirmed that those are currently all of them. All three guilds are inactive and candidates for boarding and/or deletion. (Looking at how inactive they are, Habitica probably just doesn't need a guild dedicated to tumblr in general.)
 * Harry Potter:
 * Dumbledore's Army
 * Gryffindor House
 * Hogwarts
 * Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
 * Hufflepuff Common Room
 * Ravenclaw Common Room
 * Slytherin House
 * Japanese but not dedicated to learning Japanese:
 * 日本語話者の集会所ｶｯｺｶﾘ: Alive. Name means "Japanese Speakers Meetup". The main Habitican Japanese-speaking guild. The place you would send Japanese newbies to if they want to speak Japanese. Definitely not a target.
 * Weibo (微博): Alive (and therefore not a target). Something about microblogging?
 * 凡才の挑戦: Rather dead (and therefore in the target list). Has a rather general self-improvement topic. Will probably be deleted.
 * Learning Japanese:
 * Japanese Deep Cave Adventurers
 * Kotoba Miners
 * /r/Team_Japaneseのギルド
 * The JRPG Club
 * The LearnJapanese Guild
 * Wanikani
 * WaniKani<3
 * Minecraft:
 * Minecrafters
 * Minecraft
 * Minecrafter
 * Plurk:
 * Karma Vacation
 * Plurk Peeps
 * Roleplaying (especially roleplaying inside Habitica, and roleplaying approaches to doing tasks):
 * Habitica Role-Play Challenges (HRPC)
 * Fighters Guild
 * Rangers Guild
 * Space Traders
 * The Arcane Warrior's Syndicate
 * The Archons
 * The Society of Flash and Guile
 * Sleep:
 * Asynchronous
 * Early to Bed and Early to Rise
 * Naps of Power: Habiticans for Better Sleep (formerly Naps of Power: Polyphasic Sleepers)
 * nyctophilia (possibly)
 * Polyphasic Sleepers
 * The Cozy Inn of the Drowsy Dragon -- Idiopathic Hypersomnia
 * tumblr:
 * Cute and Cool Things on Tumblr
 * i'm probably on tumblr right now
 * Tumblr Crowd

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 58 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 (no, it didn't really become clear where that name came from), became captain there, and created Korea-themed booty challenges. Once those were all won, the guild didn't swim like a good duck anymore, but sank like a brick instead (was deleted). 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. Pirates can win the plunder by going sugar-free for 24 hours. Labdoo, a sadly inactive guild about the NGO Labdoo (which collects and donates old computers to schools around the world), was sighted, hailed and inspected by @Ariel and @Blue. After its old challenge had been recycled and donated to the Decluttering Devils,  @Dewines volunteered to create booty challenges, and was promptly made guild captain. The challenges required pirates to find ways to reduce waste and recycle. After they were all won, the guild got deleted (no, not recycled). During the ongoing effort to merge some of the existing sleep-themed guilds, The Sleeping Guild was found to be asleep, and was boarded by @Ariel. @Ariel then created some booty challenges which were all won by pirate in their sleep. Then the guild struck a reef and broke apart (probably because the helmsman was asleep). Vida Saludable, a Spanish-speaking guild, was sighted and boarded by @Ariel, who created booty challenges to permanently change your Dailies to better support long term health. After the challenges were all won, the guild was shot to pieces and sunk. The Baron's Civility Parlor: Surprisingly empty in both description and communication, this guild's purpose is a mystery... In fact, it escaped the pirates' notice for a time, that is, until @Ariel sighted it. @Alys was about to light the cannons of destruction, but decided there may be treasure aboard... and there was. @Ariel claimed captaincy and created challenges for pirates to establish their own coats of arms. While in the process of adopting the abandoned challenges there, pirate @keyes also stepped up to become the new headmaster of the rather active Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. (The last headmaster had magically vanished more than a year before.) Being both a Harry Potter fan and a pirate, @keyes is planning to keep this position and keep the school running. It is unclear if and when the school's gems will be used for challenges, and if those can be called booty challenges or just plain guild challenges (or both). Dr. Phil's Redhawks - Talk about an abandoned ship! This guild had virtually no description, no guild chat, and an inactive guild owner. @Phantom818 boarded the guild and created challenges to distribute the three gems. Since there's no idea what the original guild owner had in mind, two of the four challenge tasks relate to Dr. Phil, while the other two are general reading/learning tasks. There has not been much of a fight with the Bar Slayers crew that has been abandoned by its captain in 2013, so not much time has passed from this caravel being sighted by @Blue till it getting captured by @Ariel. Currently being carefully inspected for any possible leftover valuables.</li> One bright and sunny day when @Ariel and @tenko were sunbathing .. err, working hard scrubbing the deck, they noticed the Fitbit Warriors catamaran on the horizon. Upon a closer look, they have not found many of the crew members being fit, and apparently they were not the famed warriors either. @tenko has taken over the ship and is currently cruising it back to the Pirate Cove for looting.</li> From her newly acquired fancy catamaran, @tenko has spotted the supposedly extinct time-bending Future Procrastinators of Tomorrow ship's wreck, and promptly called for @Ariel to check it up for possible survivors. @Ariel has boarded the ship and is currently searching the ship for crew members who are still alive and can be joined with their brethren from the Procrastinators guild.</li> Sailing through the exotic waters of the Japanese Sea @tenko has stumbled upon the remains of the 凡才の挑戦 ancient floating shelter. It was empty and apparently long abandoned in favor of the new and more sturdy shelter, 日本語話者の集会所ｶｯｺｶﾘ. @tenko is currently searching it for valuables, after which she'll sink it so it wouldn't attract any more Japanese shelter seekers, so that they can head directly to the active one.</li> </ol> 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 56 guilds in total. We captured 26 of those first (they appear in both the Sunk Guilds and Captured Guilds list) and sunk the other 30 without capturing them. 36 of the sunk guilds got destroyed beyond repair, 12 got scuttled in one piece, 8 were turned into submarines.

The first 40 sunk guilds have been moved to the Archive. Those here are just the latest:

@MEmry sighted and captured the inactive CFA Students guild and (since CFA stands for Chartered Financial Analyst) ran some budget-related booty challenges. @Merinmel Caesg applied for captaincy because one of the things on eir Christmas wish list was eir very own private submarine. True to both the Christmas and the pirate spirit, @MEmry challenged @Merinmel Caesg to earn the guild. When @Merinmel Caesg could answer most of her questions about the 12 days of Christmas correctly, @MEmry generously gave the guild to em. @Merinmel Caesg rebuilt it into a Subba Subba Submarine!, waited for the last booty challenge to be won, then evacuated everyone else from them vessel and dove beneath the waves into uncharted abysses. (The.guild was privatized.)</li> At the request of its captain @Andrewicus, the guild The Photographers was quietly burned to cinders because it was a duplicate of the active Photographers guild. (@Andrewicus originally created the duplicate guild because he wanted to make a challenge, but didn't know he could do that in a guild without being guild leader.) The guild wasn't mentioned in the Pirate Cove before being destroyed, but apparently the pirate @SabreCat was involved somehow and helped (or at least witnessed).</li> 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) were created and won. Then the guild was xed out (deleted). (Actually it was deleted more than a week before this entry was added to the list - so it's not exactly number 43 but somewhere thereabouts. But pirates aren't usually know for their meticulous bookkeeping skills!)</li> Labdoo, a sadly inactive guild about the NGO Labdoo (which collects and donates old computers to schools around the world), was sighted, hailed and inspected by @Ariel and @Blue. After its old challenge had been recycled and donated to the Decluttering Devils, @Dewines volunteered to create booty challenges, and was promptly made guild captain. The challenges required pirates to find ways to reduce waste and recycle. After they were all won, the guild got deleted (no, not recycled).</li> Post Grad Shows was originally found and reported by @Dewines who had spotted a case of plague on board (i.e. there was an inappropriate word in the guild name). Just obscuring one letter in a bad word with an asterisk doesn't stop it being a bad word, so @Alys swiftly stepped in and removed the offending word. But with or without the word, this guild was quite dead anyway (and was also a duplicate of the Grad School Recovery guild). So its captain @Hale Williams happily agreed to its destruction. (@Hale Williams retrieved the gems from the guild bank eirself, there was no booty and no boarding.)</li> During the ongoing effort to merge some of the existing sleep-themed guilds, The Sleeping Guild was found to be asleep, and was boarded by @Ariel. @Ariel then created some booty challenges which were all won by pirate in their sleep. Then the guild struck a reef and broke apart (probably because the helmsman was asleep).</li> Vida Saludable, a Spanish-speaking guild, was sighted and boarded by @Ariel, who created booty challenges to permanently change your Dailies to better support long term health. After the challenges were all won, the guild was shot to pieces and sunk.</li> 300, a guild gathering the fans of the movie by the same name, who wanted to try and follow the ascetic, Spartan ways of life. As it turned out a bit too harsh to implement in real life, the guild was getting more and more silent when spotted by @cTheDragons, with the last conversation about a Spartan Race. The guild was submerged and will continue its existence in the shadows of the deep sea.</li> AugNoWriMo, a guild devoted to an August 2014 Novel Writing Month Challenge was spotted by @tenko, and because of well grounded suspicions of not being useful anymore due to passing its expiration date by a significant amount of time, got scuffled.</li> GW Community School was sighted floating rather lifelessly by @tenko. When poked it moved slightly, turned out to be still warm with fairly recent captain's activity, so it only got submerged.</li> AppDotNet guild was sighted by @LlamaHobbit. The captain was glad to see the Pirates and has thanked them for tidying the Seas of Habitica, as her ship was abandoned by the crew members. She has promptly rescinded her captainship, shared the loot with the Pirates, and proceeded to watch her once beloved caravel getting sunk by their flotilla's cannons relieved.</li> Festivids was once a very lively ship with a large and garrulous crew, but that has already been ancient history by the time it was found by @Dewiness floating around lifelessly, a shadow of what it used to be back in 2014. Since the captain was present on board of the ship, the Pirates have only foundered it.</li> <li>i'm probably on tumblr right now is a ship that made up 1/3rd of the tumblr guilds flotilla. Sighted by @Blue, who ordered its crew members to board one of the two other ships in the flotilla and then shot it to smithereens.</li> <li>Kotoba Miners was a doppelganger of several ships from the Japanese Sea. It was sighted by @tenko on her patrol cruise over the Japanese Sea and hailed. Its captain has been frequenting other, foreign seas more than being present on this ship, and has agreed to its sinking.</li> <li>Live a S.M.A.R.T Life was sighted by @Ariel, who upon detecting no signs of life on board has populated it with Pirate follies, looted it from all its leftover valuables, fed it to the cannons of our Admiral, @Alys.</li> <li>Learning Machines was a magnificently futuristic gaff cutter whose crew consisted entirely of learned machines. Its captain, the only human on board, has agreed that there has not been much dialogue activity among his crew members, and decided to yield his captainship in favor of @tenko, who has used his machines to loot the ship more productively and sunk it after emptying the coffer.</li> </ol>

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. When you message the guild leader, please also update the guild entry in the Guilds in Our Sights list and add the info that you've sent the guild leader a private message (and when), and whether the guild leader has answered yet or not. (Or if you don't know how to edit the wiki, get another pirate to do it for you.) This is especially important because otherwise, no one except the sender and receiver of the message will know about it, and that will lead to other pirates messaging the guild leader, too (because they think it hasn't been done yet), and the guild leader will feel spammed. Once you receive an answer from the guild leader, please tell the other pirates what the guild leader said about what should be done with the guild, and also add that info to the guild entry in the Guilds in Our Sights list (or get someone else to do it for you).
 * 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.
 * Whenever you're dealing with one of the Harry Potter-themed guilds, it helps to know that Hermione Granger was born on Talk Like a Pirate Day.
 * And so much more...Went