Responses in italics.
I’d love to hear everyone’s perspective on this:
Is it ever OK to kick someone even if they meet the advertised preferences of a group?
1) You advertise a training run let’s say for Vale Guardian. People join, they fill the important slots of it, you get two PS Warriors. You are at 9/10 and another PS Warrior joins, maybe you didn’t have the time to update your listing. None of the PS Warriors can swap to another build. All of them fulfill the preferences. Do you kick the one PS (to be fair, the last one to join)
Sociologically speaking (again), there is an implied assumption in choosing to play with others in a group setting. That is, that the group is willing to do what it takes to succeed at the content. All of the members benefit. The 10th person should recognize that kitten happens, the group did not update the listing before he joined, and that he is unable to provide something else that would work. The socially responsible thing for that person to do would be to voluntarily leave. If he does not, then he is acting contrary to the group’s goals. A kick would be in order, with a, “Sorry we didn’t update the listing before you joined.”
2) You advertise for a daily fractal run. People join, including a healer Druid. The last person to join is another support build, let’s say a support Tempest. None want to swap their builds, going in with 2/5 support builds isn’t very good, in fact on many fractals even one support isn’t needed. Do you kick a support if neither wants to swap?
Again, a statement that, “This is not going to work, we only have room for one support build and Healer of the Woods joined first.” should elicit a departure by Tempestuous Soul. If she digs her heels in, an apology and kick should be acceptable.
3) In an anyone welcome group, you get that one person who is always on the ground, dead. He begins to drag the team down, ignoring mechanics, wiping the entire group and refusing to change because “That’s how he wants to play”. That person is holding 4 people back and their fun is diminished by having him drag them down. Is it appropriate to kick said person?
Having been the unfortunate recipient of a Leroy Jenkins moment in WoW, I feel you on this one. Deliberate attempts to mess with people would certainly warrant exclusion. However, inadvertent poor play is another. In an “all welcome” group, if I could see that a player was trying but was just not playing well enough, I would more likely leave the group rather than initiate a kick. Why? Incompetent play does not violate the social compact in an all welcome setting. In fact, I might feel badly about leaving because the departure of 1/5th of their number might mean group dissolution. However, having been in a 3.5 hour difficulty 5 fractal run with such a player, I recognize that I am only willing to commit so much time to a group effort.
4) In the opposite situation that 3. You join an all welcome group and that terrible person keeps harassing team members. The team succeeds in the encounters but that guy still goes at it. Do you kick said person or take his insults and move on?
Deliberate rudeness violates most social compacts. I have been in friends’ groups with an unstated willingness to use insults as part of the social experience. Since this is part of the social compact in that group, it’s fine. There is no such social compact in a randomly forged group where a random stranger behaves in such fashion. A kick would be warranted.
From a social perspective, solutions to such problems would have to recognize that the individual owes as much or more responsibility to the group as the group does to the individual.