Diplomacy is Awesome!

Noir. Academy had perhaps its first real diplomacy issue since its inception. Woops. You see, what had happened was . . . well, first let me back up and go over how students in Nior. Academy progress through our system.

Noir. Academy has, of course, joined Of Sound Mind alliance as part of HERO. As I've stated before, this decision was made for a handful of reasons, among them the fact that when Noir. Academy was permanently deployed with Noir., students had less incentive to graduate. Secondly, this gives them a great area for content without having to rely on instructors all the time, who may be busy on contracts. Students stay with Of Sound Mind for the first two of the three stages in the program.

Once they progress into the third stage, they deploy with Noir. wherever we are. They remain in Noir. Academy however. We brainstormed ideas of what to do with stage three students previously, but came to the conclusion that it would be too much trouble for the short time a student spends in stage three to make big changes. It'd be easier to leave them in Noir. Academy, and the risk would be very low.

Well, that pretty much turned out to be true, but it did finally catch up with us. Two of our stage three students joined a going away fleet for one of our alliance friends who is leaving EVE to join the army. The fleet was made up of about 150 or so people comprising of Suddenly Spaceships, No Holes Barred, and many others. It started out in Providence, but moved over to Catch, at which point it ran into a HERO fleet. Of course, the two Noir. Academy students were blue to the fleet and were more than certainly ignored by HERO.

I talked with the students afterwards and they confided in me that they felt pressured to perform in front of fellow Noir. pilots. I reminded them in no uncertain terms that what they did was against our rules, against Of Sound Mind's rules, and made us look bad. In short, it was an absolutely stupid call to make and they should have known better.

After putting out some fires thanks to Sovereign Apocalypse, one of my full-time instructors, and the directors from Of Sound Mind, I decided to remove the two students from Noir. Academy immediately, have each of them pay 1/3 of the costs that HERO was asking for in reimbursements, and submit apologies to myself, Sovereign Apocalypse, June Ting, and their fellow corporation mates. By this point, I think that they began to understand the gravitas of their actions. I hope that this event will be the spark that ignites some changes to how our stage three students are handled; I certainly don't want a repeat of this situation in the future!

Outside of the game, I've had one interview with Cap Stable which should be published soon, as well as finishing up Marc Scaurus' lowsec questionnaire. The CSM season is heating up now that the holidays are over, and I look forward to the next couple of months!

If any of you have any questions for me, I'd love to speak with you by the way. You can send me any questions or comments via my CSM thread, my email (psianhauvyander@gmail.com), Twitter, EVEMail, or even here on my blog!