If guilds were to be rated on a scale of 1-10, I'd give Red's Army a 9/10. Here's why:
The community is an exceptional one. If you join this guild as a negative, sad, or just a non-active pirate, the contagious positivity will get to you in no time.
The leadership, specifically the GM, is incredible with few exceptions. The guild and discord is run like a (relatively, I'll get to that in a second) well-oiled the machine. If you are in this guild and are afraid of talking to most of the higher-ranking officers, you shouldn't be. In many guilds, you may find yourself afraid of talking to the higher ranks or you find yourself feeling like they just don't want to talk to you (even though they pretend they want to.) In this guild, most of the officers are open to 'hanging out' with even the newest and least-experienced members.
-SIDE NOTE if you are in this guild and aren't in the discord, you are really missing out! The admins work hard on it and it's run very well. It's also a good way to stay connected with the guild even when out of the game.
Now, I'd like to explain a few gripes I have with the guild. The main problem I had was with how some situations were handled.
My first example being how "warnings" are handled. If you happen to break a guild rule and the offense is not too egregious, the administrators will give you a warning. The dictionary definition of a warning is "a statement or event that indicates a possible or impending danger, problem, or other unpleasant situation." If you are given a warning, you are given a "WARNED" role in the discord that sets you apart from the usual "Members" group.
Now this doesn't seem too bad, but this tag sets you apart from the rest of the guild. If given the warned tag, you will likely find yourself alone in this roll. Every other guild member in the discord knows you did something bad. While they may not treat the warned pirate differently, it gives this pirate a tainted reputation displayed to all of the guild. I wish that this would be handled differently and kept between the warned pirate and the higher-ranked members.
My second gripe is how promotions are held within this guild. Red's Army takes it's promotions very seriously and have a system for promotions. In the discord, you inform an admin that you wish to apply for (in this instance) veteran. You get a role in the discord "Applying for V" and you will join this role with other applicants. (To summarize the promotion process it goes like this for most applicants: Ask --> write an application --> voice chat interview --> promotion/denial)
The first problem I see with promotions is how they were handed out. In my experience, I saw promotions handed out to people the admins had liked more. Also in my own experience, it seemed like some people were held to higher standards for promotions than others. A trait on one person would be unacceptable, while the same trait on another person would be perfectly alright.
The second problem with how the promotions are handled is the voice-chat interview (again in my own experience.) When I did my interview, the outcome was seemingly completely predetermined. The interview didn't even matter. I entered the interview and was greeted by a snarky admin who immediately took cracks at my application and his sentences were filled with "err's" and "umm's" and just a general snarkiness towards me from the get-go. No matter what I answered, I knew I was not going to get the promotion. The admins in the voice channel had made their decision before the interview had even started. This connects back to the "bias" issue. The admin slammed me for being a bit of a goof and that's one of the reasons I wasn't given the veteran position. While yes, this is true and understandable, there is an officer in the guild who frequently makes "your mom" jokes and explicit innuendos. That goes back to my point about different standards for different people.
Now I could go on, it's a complicated issue. End of the line conclusion is: this guild is incredible. I hope changes can be made to the system and how some decisions are made, but overall I was very happy with my time in Red's Army and it was a joy to log on every day to an amazing community and mostly an incredible administrative office (who do great work, besides a few flaws). If you manage to squeeze into Red's Army, you won't regret it.