[Sigh]
When Morning Maniac echoes the call for specific suggestions, the level of respect that I have for him bids me to set aside my own preferences and stop teaching for a moment.
To set the stage, let there be no mistake. My attitude is different now than when I was in Uni. I do not hold the same beliefs about some of the core tenants that were being taught and continue to be taught to this day. I have changed, have never denied it nor do I see that fact as a shortcoming.
Those changes in my perception of those around me are the direct result of leaving Uni and experiencing the EVE universe for myself.
Others left before me and returned with comments and criticism. The conflict and internal drama that these episodes caused contributed to my own leaving. I was wrong to dismiss their viewpoints and cavalierly set them aside simply as the desire to control Uni after departure.
So, I have no memory issues and I'm aware that my viewpoints are different now than they were earlier, thank you. I have no desire to start a clone of Uni. My desire is that Uni continue to evolve in order to present a more accurate portrayal of the game, in all it's complexities.
Suggested 'Big Picture' changes:
- To serve as a Director, a player should have more than three month's experience flying with another corp in their area of expertise.
- Directors should serve staggered terms of not more than 1 year. Repeat terms should be allowed, but only after a 'sabbatical' of three months flying with someone else.
- A full and complete financial report (balance sheet, income statement and isk flow) and report of Departmental activities should be prepared quarterly and released to all involved parties, including students and contributors.
The focus of these suggestions is to make sure that Uni presents a balanced and up to date viewpoint of the game and is accountable to external supporters for Uni's stewardship of their support.
DC
PS
If you continue to hold the mistaken notion that I have some personal enmity for Uni, explain how it is that I refused to employ the power available to me as an operator of the Eve University public channel from the time that I left until that role was removed in the last few hours. What would be more 'personal' than finding out that all of the other operators were removed and that IVY was banned from the channel? I was aware of that opportunity and could have taken that action any time, but yet did not.
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Yes, this is really me.
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Yes, this is really me.
About Me
- Dee Carson
- Dallas/Tx, United States
- Director Seppuku Warriors
45 comments:
Oh big yawn... "it's not personal, I didn't block a chat channel." wha wha way. Give us a break.
You seem to think the Uni should be run the way YOU think it should be, and are on some personal vendetta to bring about those changes. You do realize you're no longer in the Uni, don't you? All the talk about "it'll be fun" and "we're paid", is BS. You may find it fun to grief n00bs with < 2m skill points, and Sabre's alt may be paying you, but never-the-less it's BS. That's not why you're doing this.
You're trying to either bring about change in the Uni, or perhaps just punish them like some spoiled little boy who didn't get his way.
What you seem to fail to realize is, YOU'RE NO LONGER IN EVE-UNI SO THEY DON'T HAVE TO JACK @#$% WHAT YOU WANT!
Get over yourself. Get on with your life. Go to 0.0 and fight "the real eve" as you put it, instead of griefing a bunch of noobs.
All your "reasons" you keep posting are bull. You didn't get your way so you're throwing a temper tantrum. Miner with Fangs? Try 40something year old baby.
Play Eve the way it's FUN for YOU to play it, not for others.
Dee, you don't need to explain yourself so much. Just play and have some fun.
Squizz
You actually expected anyone to learn those points you just listed by declaring war? Explain how declaring war helps your cause, I dare you.
The first poster has it all right, we'd all love it if you dropped the whole "it's not personal" BS, you've made it quite personal and then expect us to be gracious and loving while you continue this horrible pile of rationalizations? Just admit it, you're in it for the same reason Sabre is, you just want to burn shit and make money doing it.
Wow. I absolutely love how you both make that claim, despite the fact that he's clearly had opportunities to 'make it personal'.
Dee was a highly respected member of the Uni for a long, long time. Does that mean nothing to you now that he's on the other side? Clearly it doesn't, which saddens me greatly.
--Aurea
I'm a footsoldier with little more than actual events to figure things out. But here's a scenario that's been bouncing around my head for a while now, and seems to fit Dee's post pretty well:
The Uni is broken. Bigtime.Don't believe me? Check the comments on this blog from Uni members with 5 mil SP and no idea how to fit or fight. Or check the killboard. Or check the member roster and note how just about everyone with a modicum of PvP interest has left. Or read corp chat and see how few members step up to lead a fleet. Or note the impotence of D6 and the ILN.
Months of internal and external efforts to fix these deep problems have been met with a fairly universal "go away, our leadership knows best". The last few days have highlighted the folly of this approach.
IMHO Dee chose to not close the Uni's public channel because it proves nothing.
On the other hand, decimating Uni fleets and putting a highsec death star into reinforced shines a spotlight on the Uni's extreme and deep-rooted problems fulfilling their mission of teaching new pilots.
So if you agree with the propaganda from the current Uni leadership and you think that all of us who've put so much time into making the Uni better are just a bunch of bad/mad/mean people, you are wrong.
And the faster you and your wrong ideas get out of the way, the faster the Uni can get un-broken.
Dee,
Time to leave uni and forget about it. Explaining and suggesting will not help much.
The amount of flame war in uni forum had already decided the route it will go.
Together with sabre chat in local.
The impression is fixed.
See you in space when the POS comeout of reinforce. I sure will like to pop you and sabre.
Last time.
As all thing start good will end in evil.
That is the human nature.
So decimating newbies in frigates with 60 battleships means the university is broken? WTF are you smoking and where do I get some?
Honestly, I have been a big proponent of Eve-Uni, urging many, many new players I encounter, with far more questions each than I have time to answer, to join it as it has stood in the past as a beacon of in-game Eve society.
For the most part, all of the Eve-Uni graduates I've encountered over the years have been some of the best newbies to ever join the 0.0 corps I've been in. So I continued to recommend to newbies in NPC corps that they try to join the University.
Eventually, I found Dee's blog, and found the various posts about the school very interesting. The man knows what he's talking about, unlike many other people you see hurling invectives left and right all over the Eve-forums and elsewhere.
I was sad to see him announce his departure, as I knew a competent teacher was leaving. But I still continued to recommend newbs join the university, as I had good faith that the other leaders were of a similar caliber.
This trolling has changed all that.
A vehement pile of carebear garbage can be seen in the comments above this, and it raises grave misgivings about the capabilities of the university if this is what it turns out now.
Any hardship in real life, let alone a game of internet spaceships, is a learning opportunity. So don't give me bullshit about a war dec not being helpful to a school, a place where anything is a learning opportunity, of all things.
The fact that your leadership has failed to exploit this opportunity, whatever its reasons, is only indicative of grave incompetence.
And also, don't spew bullshit about 2m sp newbies and BS's. You can have solo PvP success on barely 900k if you bother to practice a bit. The same can be said of group PvP as well.
Look at GoonSwarm. They've built an empire on the backs of trial accounts. Against foes far more ruthless than this giant teddy bear you're flaming.
Good grief.
Mr. Anonymous:
Regarding the smoking: you're the one philosophizing about good and evil in that special way so popular with stoner dropouts.
Yes, the fact that Uni can't defend itself with such amazing resources at its disposal is pure fail. See above for specific examples.
Your crybaby type the reason the Uni is in this position. I'd suggest you funnel the energy you spend lamenting your poor, poor fate and trying to convince everyone you're special into doing something about it, but your apparent incompetence will likely preclude any meaningful results.
Better incompetent struggling, though, than your pathetic insults that just turn friends of Uni into enemies.
I don't have anything to really say regarding Dee's post, simply as there is nothing that needs to be said.
However, Kraftman, I apologise if you believe the Uni is broken, and the war isn't the problem. The destruction of resources provided to the students is the problem.
Persoanlly, I'd like to know what these "months of internal and external efforts" are supposed to be however, especially as E-UNI is not, and has never been, the be-all and end-all of training in Eve - the purpose is to simply get new pilots over the initial learning cliff, then for them to go on to whatever they want and specialise. Nothing more.
If someone thinks they can do better, make a competitor - please.
If you don't want to do that, then join and teach - fix the problems you believe there are from the inside.
As is, I have to prepare for some POS defence - it comes out of reinforced in just over 5 hours, although its more likely to be simply a large explosion, as what defences we had left have already been incapacitated... Not certain what that is really teaching the members, though - maybe not to trust people who you once respected?
@ Anon #1 - Here's a cookie, little man! Enjoy & be quiet while the adults (those who are brave enough to put their names on their posts) continue the conversation.
@ Squizz - I don't 'have' to try and explain, but I choose to do so because I was specifically asked to. I appreciate your viewpoint and will be taking that approach much more often in the future, for sure!
@ Aurea - Thank you for the kind words.
@ Kelduum - Interesting set of contradictions.
How do you reconcile the invitation to "join and teach - fix the problems you believe there are from the inside" with the position that you communicated on the Uni forums in discussing the POS attack when you said "all it does is make sure that the TANTO members involved will never be returning."?
How do you reconcile your statement in that same response that the POS is "used for nothing but research for members at below market value" with the facts that the Uni POS is used as a wartime rally point for every fleet, that command ships sit inside the POS shield and pass out combat bonuses and it is fitted with a full set of faction offensive modules? How are any of those activities/capabilities related to research? If you wanted to communicate the 'peaceful' intent of the POS, why would you not turtle it up with resists and forget about offensive modules entirely?
How do you reconcile the statements from your 08 April press release which said "So that wars never again disrupt its goals, the University directors instituted new policies and created a divisional split for wartime" and "With newly instituted policies guaranteeing an uninterrupted academic experience for those not willing to engage in combat, and at the same time an increasingly combat hardened membership, Eve University faces the new wars with a renewed resolve to fight, and fight well, for as long as is necessary to ensure peace and freedom for its students. " with all the comments about how the students are the ones being affected? Only those that want to fight remain in Uni, right? Your changes made sure that war decs are no longer disruptive, right?
Interesting that when groups dec you and get intimidated by the blob, Uni pilots & leadership deride them for not 'bringing the fight', but when another group does 'bring the fight', then the aggressors are picking on the low SP pilots.
Dee
If you think you can do it better, start a PvP corp for new players (as PvP is the only thing you keep yapping on about).
Make it free, make it available to all, provide replacement ships, allow free roaming and if you are as bloody wonderful as you seem to think then it will be a roaring success.
Best of luck.
God I love how you say you don't care about the game yet you care so deeply about seeing names in posts! Waaaaawaaaaawaaa I don't know who's posting this waaaaaaa. I don't care. I don't care who you are, who you were, or what you're going to do.
All you SW guys just don't GET it. We don't give a damn about the war, or even you attacking the POS, or even YOU for that matter. It's the huge amounts of bullshit you keep shoveling that is irritating.
I don't understand why my university comrades are taking this so personally. You dec'ed us. I don't care who you are, why you did it, where you used to work, etc etc etc. Until the war ends, you're my enemy, and so I will fight you. Isn't that how wars work?
I'm definitely not angry that you blew up the POS, because that's exactly what I would try and do if I was at war with a corporation. However, I also did everything I could to kill you while you were trying to. I'm happy to trade my Cormorant and Merlin for getting on your Rokh killmail as a Unista noob, heh.
@ Ethan Kragstar
You, sir, get it, congratulations! How Shewla beat the other 35 of you to my pod, I'll never know! lol. I conv'ed her & paid up the 20M bounty match, so she should make sure that AK does his part, too! ;P
Yikes.. those anonymous guys sure have a big mouth don't they. Dee has been running uni for a while, along with some of the other people currently on "the other side", so it might not be a bad idea to stay open for comments they make and evaluate them like you would evaluate any other idea. Look past the war instead of focusing on "oh my god they are Big Evil Meanies and they're all full of crap". That won't get you anywhere and is probably the reason we all ended up in this situation in the first place.
There's a couple of people in eve uni who get it, and a load who don't. I don't blame the new players, they don't know any better. But the old ones should know better..
Also, lol @ getting podded Dee :P Podsaver old man, podsaver!! ;)
Anyway, back to shooting outpost services for me..
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Eyedoll
Asuri Kinnes here.
Glad you had an epiphany, maybe you should share the specifics or your wondrous conversion so we could all benefit...
What makes you think that your right now, with this epiphany? What if your wrong now?
And specifically, in what area of the game was the Uni falling so short in? I just wondered, because you are making a lot of vague generalities...
Just freakin sad dee...
Asuri Kinnes
@ Eyedoll - It was sad! My overview filled with red all < 10km and I knew I was dead! Tried to swap overviews & got no where... Started laughing my ass off, 'cause I knew I was about to owe some lucky Uni member 20M isk! Tried to spam warp & nothing... Massive desynch and then disconnect. Relog and I'm in station, still laughing. Whadda ya gonna do? I won't whine, bitch or complain. I got popped fair & square. So did 3 other SW battleships, a HAC and a BC and we had a great time!
@ Assuri - 1/10 on the troll meter, sir! ;P
I have shared the details that you asked for across the arc of these posts, culminating with 3 specific suggestions, which were dismissed without comment. I have no interest in plowing the same ground again.
Hey Dee,
I guess my concern with your suggestions would be that a lot of the experience you talk about seems to be either difficult to obtain for someone who joined another corp for a "sabbatical", or doesn't seem to be any higher-value for being acquired elsewhere, other than the PvP experience aspect.
Wouldn't it also be difficult to find someone who was out there in the real game, away from the Uni, and was willing to give up a big chunk of their time to come back and serve as Eve Uni's Director of Personnel, or Logistics, or Education?
Given the new things you've seen and the fresh perspectives you've gained in your time away, if you were hypothetically to return to the Uni tomorrow after your sabbatical and take up the DirOps position again, what would you do differently now compared to what you were doing then? I understand the shedding of the "bunker mentality" and that you would want the new term-limit policy on Directorships that you've spelled out, but what would your sabbatical be helping you personally with in nuts-and-bolts terms? Also, probably related, which aspects of the operational policies - or training syllabus, or student support mechanisms - do you now think could be changed to improve the experience and training that newbies like me are getting?
Sorry for the wall of text.
Cheers,
Rodney Chips
Just curious:
At any point today was the success of your POS-removal mission in jeopardy? I'm pretty sure it wasn't, we may have had more ships but you had vastly more tonnage. I'm just curious what you have to say about it.
And if its a matter of corp security and you can't tell me, that's cool too.
I'm not sure if I'm overstepping my boundaries here, but I would have to say that I never personally felt as if our fleet was in danger of getting destroyed. Sure, we did lose quite a few BS, including my apoc (damn desync) but we had both the numbers and replacement ships to keep up the firepower long enough to take down the tower. However, I think if you guys had organized better and got in your biggest ships and warped in all at once, I could've seen a fair bit of trouble coming our way.
Just my opinion from what I experienced today. Either way, I still had a load of fun today, and I hope you guys did too. Also, thank you for at least trying to fight back/defend the POS and making it something fun for everyone involved
o7
-Destoya (TANTO)
@ Destoya
Pretty awesome today, yeah. The lag seemed a lot better for me today; I desynced at least twice when you were reinforcing the tower, but I was silky smooth this afternoon.
Don't know if you remember shooting at my Executioner, but I wanted to ask if you were set up for extra tracking at all. Moving at 1400m/s or so in a frig, I was surprised at how much I was getting hit. Last time a battleship fired at me in a frigate, it was a Hyperion, and I was plated, and I didn't get hit once the entire fight.
No offense, but I shot too many frigs to remember exactly who I was shooting. However, are you sure I shot you in a BS? Because a switched out to my Harbinger with tracking enhancers after my BS died (specifically to shoot your support, the frigs and Blackbirds were annoying me :p) and that would explain the extra tracking that you noticed
@ Destoya
Ah, that would explain it then. This was when we went for KOTH's Vulture, looks like your Apoc was down before that. Thanks.
I'm still struck by the apparent split between the "it's not personal" claims, and the arguments we see everyday.
Note these claims all come from SW. Most of E-Uni have come to the decision that, yes, they think it's personal. Whether that's appropriate or not, who knows.
Basically, if it's not personal, then your arguments would be more coherent.
At the moment they shift between "teachin' the noobs" - though the lesson is mostly "you cannot fight 60 BSs with 30 frigates, try again".
Or sometimes it's "just a contract". Which is odd, as SW isn't a merc group - and has stated that this is a near one time thing.
Then there's "you're all stupid, do things our way". Which is personal. But could be altruistic. In a very odd light.
Finally, there's the "you insulted us!" Which is definitely personal.
Now there's nothing wrong with personal, per se, just stop trying to pretend you've got a higher (or equal footed) moral ground. And that you randomly picked E-Uni to teach your guys POS attacks. Because that's nonsense.
Own the personal nature of the fight, and people inside the Uni would respect you much more.
First I'd like to apologize to Dee for going all CAOD on his blog. Next time I'll take a deep breath before hitting Publish, heh.
Kelduum - My personal efforts to help build the Uni consisted of organizing lowsec PvP squads for learning and practice. Unfortunately the corp culture at the time (late 2008, Jan 2009) was so weak in PvP, I rarely got more then three or four in gang. This, however, was pretty much the blind leading the blind with my limited experience. IMHO the rather strict rules of engagement, the 0.0 prohibitions, and lack of experienced FCs leading peacetime ops make it difficult to learn at a reasonable pace.
Andrew - there's just not one simple reason. Yes, this is a merc contract and we're being paid. Yes, it's a great teaching opportunity for both sides - many seem to forget that we're not some Ubercorp with a 30-mil SP requirement; we're a teaching corp where people are expected to move on, just like the Uni. For example, I've never had to fight *against* a blob or had to really understand brackets to manage laggy fights like we've had at the POS.
It's also a learning opportunity for the way Uni handles the PvP big picture - of course 30 frigs can't beat 60 BSs. Especially when many of those Uni ships are poorly fit, and often lead by brand-new FCs (salute to the brand-new FCs).
When I first joined the Uni had considerable numbers of battleships out regularly, and fancy stuff like logistics ships to back them up. Perhaps my perspective is skewed, but I've not seen that kind of firepower recently. Why can't the Uni field a comparable force, as they've been able to do in the past? I certainly don't know the details of the answer, but I believe this lack of power is directly related to the lack of PvP ability in general I mentioned above. If my personal experience is a guide, combat-oriented pilots are encouraged to leave the Uni, so they do. Over time this is incredibly detrimental to the effectivenss of the corp because wars *will* happen.
Regarding the whole "personal" issue: sometimes things become personal. When someone on the Uni board make baseless accusations about my personal motivations and quality of character, it's strangely satisfying to hear their pod squish. Hopefully that doesn't further their case too much. 8-)
For everyone else, though, it's not personal in the least and I've offered fitting, tactical, and financial assistance if I've severly hindered their play.
tl;dr: EvE is gray and complicated, there is no single answer.
Kraft, your efforts to help were certainly appreciated, and yes, I would agree that over the last year there has been a tendency to avoid using larger ships in PvP, however in my defense I only took over as DirOps in (very) late December.
However, there is a discussion topic open on the Directors forum at the moment as to how we can rectify this, but of course, getting everyone in battleships without the ability to fit them properly is never a good idea.
It seems most of the Uni members are so blind with Rage that they can't see the point of what Dee and others are trying to say.
The main point I'm getting from this is that the EVE that the Uni teaches isn't the EVE that everyone else outside E-Uni is playing. As someone who has left the Uni for 0.0 I can attest to this. A majority of the leadership hasn't played the real EVE in a long time because they've been living in the E-U plastic bubble for far too long. ;-)
As to why pvp minded players leave, my guess would be the overly restrictive ROE, ILN personnel who have a god complex and talk down to everyone else (Hi Silentbrick!), and the station spinning during wartime would be some examples that come to mind.
Hopefully this war brings about some changes in the current stale leadership.
"The main point I'm getting from this is that the EVE that the Uni teaches isn't the EVE that everyone else outside E-Uni is playing. As someone who has left the Uni for 0.0 I can attest to this."
While i see the point you are trying to make i couldn't stop myself from commenting on this particular part of your statement.
The vast majority of eve players are happily in high sec. You dont see them comment much because they simply dont care about all the drama bombs that go on in 0.0 etc. They have their own particular play styles so why are you trying to dictate to those people how to play the game?
Overall, this whole suituation is unfortunate. Could have it been avoided? Only the leadership of the various corps can answer that question. But the fact that some people can't put aside their personal differences (sorry Dee i just dont believe SW when they say its just a 'contract') and work together is the biggest loss here when you could be working as one to achieve greater things.
But yes in my opinion, for all the many great things the Uni currently does it needs more real PvP training and teachers to take classes. However it should be only for those that want to participate. It should NEVER be forced on someone i.e wardeccing. Let people make their own decsions in the game. Of course if you do take that route you will encounter more issues that will plauge the Uni so from that standpoint i can see why the Uni currently runs the way it does in regards to PvP.
I saw your POS today Dee, it looked very pristine and well kept, it would be such a tragedy if some mercenaries were to dec it's holding corp, no?
You know how cheap random violence is these days. I certainly hope there's nothing valuable inside.
@ Anonymous
[shrugs] Nothing there that :
1. I didn't pay cash for
2. Hasn't already paid for itself
3. Wouldn't be gone by the time any dec went active
4. I didn't consider 'lost' when I undocked the hauler to set it
Hello Dee,
First of all, GF to the folks at SW and VC. You brought it and we brought as much as we could. You killed a lot of us and we got some of you. I can't speak for anyone else, but I had a blast. I'm looking forward to the coming week.
With that said, I think you guys may have shot yourself in the foot on this war dec. The majority of your recruits (I believe) come from the Uni, and rightly or wrongly, the war dec and subsequent POS killing comes across a major betrayal to many in the Uni. It's not like we have had a shortage of wars lately, many of which appear to have been arranged and paid for by some aggrieved party. If it's the same guy (Elite Contract) as on the CAOD thread, SW was openly mocking him just weeks ago, then your corp turns around and takes his money.
In a game where anyone can be anyone and anything, trust is a rare commodity, and I think you may have lost yours as an organization with the Uni. The new students have never met you except on the battlefield, and your service to the Uni is not known or appreciated by them. All they know of you is what they have seen in the past week or so. I think the students will remember this war and SW's actions, and since some of the current student crop will become instructors, when asked about SW by new students, the instructors will respond "SW? They are [insert wildly varying opinion here]. How many recruits do you think you will get from the Uni now?
o7
Miu Tsing
This comment is for Kraftman
You said:
"When I first joined the Uni had considerable numbers of battleships out regularly, and fancy stuff like logistics ships to back them up. Perhaps my perspective is skewed, but I've not seen that kind of firepower recently. Why can't the Uni field a comparable force, as they've been able to do in the past?"
I think you have to look at what has happened since Sabre decced uni as Castle Grayskull. Many of the Uni members who would be currently flying high level ships and commanding fleets left to form AdHoc and SW (and they left for a variety of reasons). And most Uni members did not begrudge this, we all recognize that everyone eventually moves on. Hell, I want to move on someday. That aside, we did undergo massive attrition - we basically lost a "generation" of pilots who would have a reasonable high number of SP and would probably still be in the Uni. Check back in six months, you will probably find a more robust core of higher SP pilots. You guys just hit us at our lowest point.
And really, just stop with the "altruistic" fitting assistance as a justification for how this is not personal. Even if it is truly well-meant, just think of how it sounds on the other side. As another post on this blog put it, if i punch you in the face and then claim i was teaching you to watch out for getting punched in the face when i did it, at the end of the day, I still punched you in the face.
@AZ You should realize that the uni is at war far more often then it is at peace. We acknowledge the learning opportunities they provide when they come around once in a while. When they last they become more disruptive. Like Kelduum has already stated elsewhere, we have taken measures to continue our teaching during wars, though it is not ideal and limits the services we can offer or makes it more work to offer them.
Dee,
I think I can see where you were going with your talk about "mindset". It shows me how far you have missed the point about what the uni is trying to achieve. At the uni we are a bunch of naive people. We choose to believe that there is such a thing as neutrality, we tell our students that with a bunch of tech1 frigates you can pvp, we try to be fair and just. I know, we are idiots like that. Like others we could tell our students that they better not log in for the first few years, only to change skills, but we don't. Instead we choose to strive to make new players feel welcome and valuable and create a COMMUNITY. We try to help them in those first few months of eve where everything is very confusing. Anyone who is still around after that is around because they like the spirit of the corp or because they want to help out. It is not our goal to keep a lot of bs pilots around just so we can fight the wars that we cannot handle with our gang of frigates. We have learned in the past that when we have a lot of good pvp pilots they grow bored and create problems. In a way that's good because when that happens it shows that they have reached the point where it is time to move on. It is always sad to see good people go but that's what we are about. Our corp was never intended to be able to take on large bs/hac gangs.
It is very much like a real life university. When you're in it you think you learn loads and then when you graduate it turns out there is a lot left to be learned. With the constant influx of new people we will always be teaching basics. When it comes to pvp we will always be focussed on what we can do with our frigs and cruisers. We are making moves forward to get students to the point where they are ok with fielding larger ships and loosing them by both replacement policies and reducing the killboard focus, which has outlived it's use (we think, we will see how it turns out).
Now about your suggestions:
I like the financial report idea. I have proposed it several times before. Although we removed taxes I still think students and especially donors should know where their isk is going. The only thing stopping us is that it's more work, which is not that much fun and it takes time away from stuff we would like to do.
Your other suggestions I am not so sure about. I agree that new people with a lot of enthousiasm are an asset to the uni in any position, leadership or teaching alike. We are always on the lookout for those people and promotion can come fast to those with the right qualities. Obviously we have to make keep security in mind as well as positivism. A lot of eve vets tend to be negative about new people and we don't need them in the uni.
Let me start with my own position. I have offered it on several occasions to others. As you know I can't be ingame much and though I read the forums daily I think ideally a ceo should be in game daily. So far, everyone I have offered it to has refused to take it. Lately I don't offer it to anyone anymore. The reason is that because of the lies and manipulation coming from some people, some of them associate themselves with you these days, part of the job has become a rather unpleasant experience. I am a naive guy, I prefer to like people, I assume that everyone is good by default, I trust people on their word. But when it turns out I have been lied to, it's pretty much all over. Especially when I find out that people have been manipulative to damage good people. And no, I don't take other people's word to find out truths. When I get a message with "he said, she said" I don't just accept that anymore, no matter who it is from. To me it's been a painful experience to find that people I once trusted and who I once relied on are lying to me to damage others. If someone is to take over as ceo I have to trust that person to deal with that, be fair and continue the uni's mission. Mind you, when I hand over as ceo and the new ceo decides to go in a completely different direction I can have peace with that. No way I will come back in public saying "you're doing it wrong!". If it would come to that and rl would allow me the time I would just start a new corp and do it all again, because I know that is possible.
Now about other director/leadership positions. You assume that directors or other members are like peons and we can freely move them around as we see fit. Much like others who suggest we should make our members do this or that. They are all free people and even though they don't get to vote, they vote with their feet when they don't like it. In fact, many do, eventually all but a few leave the uni because they feel they can get more out of the game elsewhere. Again, this is good.
Anyway, I got distracted. If I were a director I would have no other desire to be anything else. If I would be kicked out for a 3 month sabattical I would just not log on and play gta4 or something until I could come back and do what I enjoy. I assume that directors are directors because that is what they enjoy doing. Some directors have alts to experience other parts of the game so they can get this up to date knowledge that you are so keen on there. Mind you that from recent experience we found that the directors with alts doing their own thing tend to be less productive nor put a lot of time towards making the uni a better place. This may just be down to the few individuals who have tried though. Still, it doesn't make me hopeful that this is actually a good route to take.
Another major problem I have with your idea is that we would require many many more people willing and able to be a director. This is also taking into account that it takes time to "break in" a new director and make sure they don't repeat mistakes that others have made (you will get this a lot with frequent rotation). Directors are directors because they are the ones who are able and willing to put in the work, to do this consistently month after month and to do this while dealing with crap like this. Meanwhile they obviously also have to support the uni's ideas and uphold certain values. Sure, they have flaws and tbh, in 5% of the work they do I think I could have done a better job. On the other hand, in most cases they take their jobs and take it far beyond anything I could have ever done or imagined. I am proud of their accomplishments and love them for their flaws.
Ok, that was long. Now let us get on with our corp and you get on with yours, ok?
Hey Dee its Cazzah here.
Firstly I would like to say that while I know where you guys are coming from, I disagree with you as Kelduum and MM do but that won't stop the constructive dialogue.
I am of the opinion that you have achieved the right results in the University, by doing things the wrong way (if that makes sense!)
I have personally been blown away by the level of innovation, commitment and persistence Uni members continue to display in this war. Like many members of SW, I believed the Uni didn't have that "PvP edge" it used to.
I'll quote what I said in the Eve Uni forums "Acacia said to me, and mentioned it in the forums, that she would no longer recommend Uni students to 0.0 alliances - their fittings sucked, they didn't learn PvP, they were so afraid of losing ships and mussing up the efficiency they blobbed. She said the only way to change things was to force people to PvP and stay in corp. I couldn't think of anything to say back to that - I think I almost believed it a little myself.
Looking at this war, I never would have believed we would spice things up by trying out new hit and run tactics. I never would have believed people would fleet up again and again and again in despite the odds we're facing. I never would have believed a gang of 12 small ships would kill 8 battleships without a loss, and I never would have believed our Director of Education would have suicidally charged in loaded with smart bombs, earning himself a one way trip to low sec.
This war has proved that Acacia and SW are wrong. Everyone who participated in this war should be commended - they have done the Uni proud. They have proved that the Uni can stand, fight and innovate when the going gets tough, without compromising the teaching of other subjects. We are well on our way to re-establishing a respectable PvP base."
Having SW as an external enemy has flared up a lot of how do you say, patriotism in the corp, and I think it brings the Uni together and we are starting that PvP rebuilding process.
All that said, in my time dealing with SW, your conduct has been at times poor. While some have had a healthy attitude eg M0rd0, I do not appreciate being lied to. The Uni does not appreciate being lied to. As Morning Maniac has said, this kind of manipulation is the wrong way to go about things.
You, who know about the contractor and his reasons, who apparently know what these grevious sins the uni have committed, yet not revealed them have fallen prey to the very secrecy and self importance many accuse the Uni leadership for.
Dee,
All im going to say although i was stuck in 49-U at the time, reinforcing kenny POSes and so couldnt be on my uni char, but talking to my friends in the uni, they should forget any personal reasons behind it and just remember the kind of fight they wont see again for a long time unless they join 0.0
Kudos.
ELicken/Aelinae.
I will not reiterate what other UNI guys have posted as they are all quite valid. Is the war fun and are we learning, sure. Are we tired of the BS from you guys with different stories and can’t get your act together, sure!
SW/Dee, seriously, do you guys realize you are no longer in UNI? Stop living in the past and frankly, stop trying to influence the UNI. Reality is you left to start a new corp. In RL, you leave a company and that's it, turn in your badge, no more influence, no more entry, no one cares. So stop worrying about UNI and us students and worry about your paying customers in SW!
How about instead of looking at what is wrong with UNI from your know it all perch. How about what's wrong with SW? Let's look Dee at your leadership of SW as DO? You are mostly ex-UNI which means you have recruited very few outsiders despite all the publicity when you broke off (including UNI goodwill, big name instructors etc.). Where is the growth in membership from throughout Eve? How come you don't already have 50, 100, 200+ members? Your all time kill list includes 30 names (mostly ex-UNI). What is the problem with recruiting? I say you FAIL.
You claim to be one of the top PVP corps. Well your own killboard efficiency rating is a miserable 51% (http://www.seppuku-warriors.net/killboard/?a=corp_detail&crp_id=1), and was mocked on the eve forums (http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1059531). When you went up against a real PVP Corp like Atomic Battle Penguins, well, they kicked you around didn’t they? What happened, I guess they were not as easy as a bunch of 1-2m SP noobs in UNI? Why no adjustment to your tactics to deal with this deadly foe? Something you claim UNI is not capable of doing. Yet in the POS battle, we had a small squad kill 12 battleships for no loss (1.27b isk)! In fact, your overall efficiency in the pos battle was not all that great considering you were killing students in large numbers (http://killboard.eve-ivy.com/?a=kill_related&kll_id=3216468).
Some of you own insiders claim Sabre A is not on for long stretches and instead playing his main. When the leader does not show up to teach, I'd say FAIL again. Some of your own members don’t sound all that convincing that they are in it for the fun. Friendships and respect are collapsing on many fronts. I say FAIL again! Sounds like the leadership voted and the members had to come along. So much for your own student involvement. Perhaps a FAIL here as well?
My suggestion, why don't you concentrate on SW and make it really the best PVP teaching corp in Eve, because right now, your leadership leaves much to be desired. TGrads and Agony Unleashed seem to be a better bet and they are your real competition. What is your competitive advantage over those two? Start focusing on the future of SW as you may not have a Corp to run much longer.
Shoot, my mistake, 8 battleships killed by 12 noobs using new tactics. I managed to flip the numbers.
Anonymous @ 3:11 am - Good to hear; I hope that you are correct in that the Uni is indeed rebuilding a solid group of PvP pilots.
Anonymous @ 5:00 pm - Thanks for the laughs. I can see why you don't post with your name. 8-)
Which part is funny there Kraft? The numbers don't lie about your efficiency, nor your membership count, nor your overall performance. I guess you would just laugh it off rather than address them and the other points? No wonder you are not growing. Whats the matter? A Cult of Sabre minion can't explain it away easily? Do try to get the party line straight.
Your misunderstanding of the situation is what's so funny.
You think efficiency matters, when in actuality we're encouraged to experiment and take on targets we shouldn't be able to. That teaches a hundred times more than taking on smaller targets with a group.
You think we don't have more than 50 pilots because you apparently don't know we've had a cap of 50 maximum pilots and have been turning down quite a few apps.
The most amusing part, though, is the way your smack has me all fired up. I was all set to move on to something new since we've smacked Uni around pretty hard for the past week, but I'm now all fired up again! 8-)
lol Kraft if some random smacking anonymous person on a blog comment gets you fired up you should check out Youtube comments seriously. You'll be fired up all year!
Indeed, Cazzah. I've lived a sheltered life and just don't get this whole trolling thing yet, hehe.
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