"No begging" is probably one of the most common guild rules in World of Warcraft, implemented as a necessary way to keep guilds a fun place to be for players of all levels, from the lowest level members under 20, to those already taking part in the End Game.
It's true, however, that the term "begging" merits some explanation so everyone is more aware of the boundaries surrounding this topic.
Introduction
Many guilds are considered to be "levelling guilds" - social, helpful, casual, and focused mainly on players who are still "developing". There might be a solid group of senior members at 60+ and many intermediate members in the 40's and 50's, but the focus on advanced dungeons as a guild whole is limited at this point because the core membership is predominantly under level 50.
Short Version:
The more you annoy Guildmates, the less helpful they'll be when you REALLY need it, so it's important to know what is deemed "annoying".
Asking to "borrow" cash is annoying (support yourself, stranger).
Repeatedly asking for advice on class or equipment issues is annoying (look it up online, there are a billion sites - and don't complain about having to alt+tab out, it's not your guild's fault you have a slow computer).
Repeatedly asking for a "run" through dungeons is annoying (If you want to go, put together a team yourself and if there aren't enough guildmates, use the LookingForGroup tool).
Using the Guild line for what should be over Private Chats (whispers) is annoying (you've already asked 15 times in the last hour for dungeon party members, take it to private chats for that ONE person who just logged in).
Over-using exclamation marks or question marks is annoying (using more than one makes you look panicked and it's a game - NOT worthy of panic).
WHY are these annoying? Because we're all virtual strangers, here to advance our own characters and enjoy the game ourselves. Fellow guild members who depend too much on Guildmates drain "helping energy" to a point where the energy isn't there for when Guildmates REALLY need it.
What now? Read and understand this post. Ask questions on your Guild Forums and Guild chat line to get clarity. Plan on doing it before fellow guildmates start to ignore you or the Officers /gkick you without a word.
And now, the longer version...
Having said that, guild members, while helpful, are all here playing for themselves with their own goals in mind, and thus every player who joins a guild needs to have a certain amount of independancy when it comes to advancing or getting what they want.
Asking for help on occasion is something we all do as Guildies, and that's definitely what the guild line is for. However, repeatedly asking for help on the same topic or subject gets tiring for Guildies to answer for you, and as time moves forward you may find your repeated questions go unanswered for the most part. Wouldn't that be frustrating?
For our purposes, let's define BEGGING:
Asking for something without offering anything back.
Regarding "Borrowing" Cash for Skills, Repairs or Equipment
Surrounding the topic of cash for equipment, repairs or skills, even if you intend to "pay someone back", you're still begging, even though you'd like to call it "borrowing". Why? Because unless you've been active and regular within the guild for many months, you're a complete stranger to us, even if you're a Guildie.
Just being in the same guild together doesn't mean much in terms of sharing hard-earned cash and equipment. Find some friends you've been playing with for months or who know in real life who can lend you cash, because too often, guildies end up not getting their money back from the plethora of new guild recruits (strangers) who wish to "borrow".
A BETTER QUESTION TO ASK the guild would be "how do I generate enough money for myself that I can afford [insert something you want here]?" And then USE that advice to improve your financial situation even if it seems a little "boring" to do!
Regarding Dungeon Activities
Occasionally, high level members of the guild will offer to take lower level folks through dungeons such as Wailing Caverns, Van Cleef, Razorfen Kraul, Scarlet Monestary, etc. If you get into one of these runs, consider yourself lucky. If your guild schedules runs with an addon like GroupCalendar 2.0 or Guild Event Manager, download the software and get it working, or log into your guild website to sign up. When I do this in guilds that support Guild Event Manager and the likes, all my parties are booked full through the calendar, a day or two in advance.
Most of the time you are looking to go into a dungeon, you're going to be needing to build your own party because high levels are working on their own high level things and won't come along. In this case, you'd probably do better to look at the guild who list (/groster) and send whispers to specific people who are within the correct level range to ask them if they'd like to join you in the dungeon party, instead of asking over and over on the guild line every time someone logs in.
It's the act of asking over and over every time someone new logs in that is labelled "begging" in this dungeon context. If the 15 people online on the guild for the last hour aren't responding to join your dungeon group, sending another message to the guild line when one new person logs in (instead of sending a whisper to the person who logged in) will only serve to annoy them and reduce your chances of them partying with you in the future.
Regarding Asking For Advice on Equipment
Asking questions on the guild line surrounding the topic of "which is better" in terms of equipment is fine on occasion for someone who is low level and new to their class. However, I'd like to make a statment on this topic as well.
In short, LEARN from what advice you're being offered by guildies when you ask for it. It's okay to ask for that advice once or twice a day, but you should be striving to be able to review equipment yourself without needing anyone else's advice, in time. If you don't learn what stats are best for your class, for example, you may find that less and less people answer your inquiries on the guild line about equipment, specifically because you've drained them of their helpfulness towards you through regular questions.
Why The Concern About "Begging"?
Why? Because the forms of begging I mentioned above all do one thing within a guild: Drain the energy members use to help others. The result is apathetic guild members who don't help each other because they've spent all of their energy helping overly NEEDY people.
But I Need Help!! What Do I Do Now??
Use websites outside the game (like Thottbot.com to help answer your questions more often and don't rely so heavily on guildmates specifically. Become a member of one of the many active World of Warcraft discussion forums online, read what other people ask about, what answers they get, and ask your own questions as well. Here are a couple of good forums I've found:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com - the Official World of Warcraft forums managed by Blizzard
http://forums.worldofwar.net - with over 100,000 registered forum members!
You'll learn an AMAZING amount about your class, the game, and many other things, while also allowing folks outside of our guild to share their "helping energy" with you and letting our guildmates use their "helping energy" for more productive things like quests, dungeons, bosses, etc.
Moving Forward... In Summary
Now that this post is here, you're welcome to point guildmates towards it and you're welcome to ask questions to clarify any concerns or confusions. Needy guild members who cannot get the hang of relying on other sources in addition to guildmates may be removed or asked to leave.
I know this sounds extreme, but it only takes a handful of overly needy guild members to have a strong impact on attitudes of usually helpful members, and in the developing levels (ie: under 60), many guilds value independance in its members over dependance or even interdependance.
Thanks for reading this article, please do post notes if you have any questions or concerns.
PS: Regarding Words I Use
If you don't know what a word means that I use in my posts, look them up in www.m-w.com - please don't drain my "helping energy" until you've read the definition, thought on it for a few minutes to understand it and can start to see how it applies in the gulid situations above. THEN we can talk.