At this point in time, research is stagnant in Seven Lakes. Most players in Seven Lakes seem to have little interest in trying to compete with Karnak.
To reinvigorate research, and improve our technologies, here is the way ahead:
Guild elders will pick some number of techs (2-3) to focus on. For each focus tech, we will build a table like Potamo did for Advanced Metallurgy. We will also break the donation requirements up into manageable lots, 200 metal, 1000 garlic, whatever the elders determine is equitable.
Guild members will then pledge to meet these requirements. After a reasonable amount of time – 7 or 14 days - to deliver the research donation, other member will be allowed to fill the pledge. Generally we won't let a single player hog all of the pledges: better that 3 players pledge and deliver items than a single player does it all.
When a contribution is delivered, chat the guild elder who is tracking that technology's contributions, to ensure you get credit.
Here's the payoff for players who contribute. We will promote players within the guild based upon donations made to the focused techs. Each filled lot earns the researching member points, and points are awarded only when a tech is completed and on timer. Say 100 points per tech, spread out across the pledge lots. If there were 20 equal pledge lots then each completed donation would be 5 points. Players can share a pledge and get a fractional reward.
Proposed Promotion Scale:
Points start accumulating after the first focus techs are announced. Donations dropped before that time... thank you, but we don't have the ability to go back and determine who dropped what. Because this is a serious change to how we do business, people will keep their current ranks, but everyone will start at 0 points to determine future promotions.