Let me first start off by saying that Severance is the home that I've always felt more comfortable in. Even when I was in SOUND, I bummed on the -7- couch more than I flew with SOUND it seems, especially more so after June's group joined SOUND. And KVA is part of the reason why I consider it a great home, I love my family members.

When I first arrived in Providence I very quickly learned that CVA fleets were for amateurs and the more professional of the bunch were in Northern Providence. Fleets were lead with an iron fist, comms were clear but fun, and fleets were professionally conducted. While CVA fleets in contrast were like a room full of kindergarteners and puppies high on espresso.

I also cut my teeth in Dispo's fleets, and he had a...unique FC'ing style, to say the least.

That said, what I think Aey and I were trying to convey is that the same complaints are being fielded by a growing number of people, both inside and outside Severance. When I notice our regular PVP-loving blues shunning our fleets and comms and explaining why, then I believe it's time to speak up.

The lack of comms discipline has come up in fleet after fleet, folks asking for comms to be quiet and clear when the time counts. It's started out by asking nicely and reminding nicely and has steadily progressed to the point of getting verbally frustrated and vicious because being nice and explaining the why's of why clear comms is in your best interest has been largely ignored. Repeatedly. We have the same people fleet after fleet who simply can't comprehend the where's and when's of conversational chit-chat and the knowing when to shut up.

Any complaints I have with our FC's are largely minor all things considered. They're all great people, they all have different strengths and weaknesses, flying styles, ship and fighting preference, and I accept and embrace that. Variety is the spice of life. I can forgive a lot of annoyances as long as I can hear the FC and/or concentrate on what I'm supposed to be doing.

I know this game doesn't pay a wage for FCing, it's all volunteer based. Dealing with all of the joys and annoyances that it entails is a huge hell of a lot of work and for that I try to thank each and every FC for a fleet, because win or lose, it's a game and I had fun (mostly).

But we're frustrated. I am frustrated.

I love to PVP, but it's not worth the effort these days when I can't hear the FC. I got lost in a fleet a few weeks ago traversing Providence while flying logi because I couldn't hear which gate we were supposed to warp to. The fleet was moving fast with a target in mind and there were hostiles all over. I don't want to die by myself in a T2 logi without a scout and I can't use JB's to catch up anymore. I just turned around and docked up in 9UY because it's not worth fighting it...every, single, night. Do you have any idea how exasperating that is? I can't be alone in feeling this way.

The way things are right now I feel like I'm being forced to not participate in fleets because it's either be in fleet and have an aneurysm from sheer frustration, or ship spin which isn't any fun either. Due to stupid loss after stupid loss keeping reds entrenched in the pocket, I don't feel safe ratting when I can't PVP. Due to the endless parade of wardecs, I can't go to highsec to do T2 industry, mission, or do something else. I've had to resort to selling rarely used fit ships and buying PLEX to resell for isk to PVP with. Since day one in EVE I have never had to do that, I've always managed to find a way to make isk.

I even tried fleeting with friends who happened to be red. We took a little fleet through Curse and the lower bowels of Catch and had a blast. Till a few days later I find out that some blue that I never saw accused about me yellowboxing them in Stain and mailed my surperiors about it. Thankfully they had my back.

I have no earthly idea when or why our fleets and comms have gotten so bad, but they have. And I think it's made worse right now due to the fact that our fleets are routinely 40+. It's like the region finally realized, "Hey these Severance guys run great fleets, I'll come over and fly with them, chat a bit." But when you amplify that by 40-60 people, it's becoming a chronic problem.

I'm just a grunt with a gun, so I can't imagine the frustration levels that the FC's are experiencing which is why I think basic rules and follow-through's might be helpful for everyone involved. Maybe FC's wouldn't get so burned out in short order if there was a clear order of discipline. Personally when I can hear and participate and have fun, I don't tend to complain as much I don't think, I just jump, align, warp, and shoot/rep X.

Before I'd just mute the same problem people on comms. But that number keeps growing. Then I'd have to mute the same people who kept talking to the ones I had muted. Then I'd mute the people who lashed out at the chatty Cathy's. At one point I had a good chunk of the fleet muted, which is asinine. Now I am more selective in what I'm willing to participate in.

Aey is a great logi FC and I have considered it a personal pleasure to be schooled on logi fits, tactics, and the basics because I am a logi noob. He's gotten me out of my shell to logi for fleets, big and small, It still gives me more of an adrenaline rush and the shakes than the actual pew-pew portion does anymore.

He's also stepped up to the plate to run the SRP, for which I am grateful as from what it sounds like dealing with the forms and things sounds complicated and work intensive.

As for me, you're absolutely 100% correct that I have done nothing. And you don't know how much that vexes me. I want to do something useful. but there really isn't anything that I can do that is useful or isn't already being done better by someone else.

As for my faults, I have quite a few I think. FCing isn't for me, because I am not a leadership type, I have a short fuse, and I hate talking on comms unless absolutely necessary. I don't know how to run a POS for SRP/JB purposes and it sounds like a 4th job, with EVE already being a third. I don't know how to work a spreadsheet and I'm shit at math. And you certainly don't want me to recruit for you, because as cynical and as good as I consider my ability to sniff out awoxers/droppers/and spais, I'd recruit everyone with a halfway believable sob story because I want to believe the best in people. So other than being there virtually 24/7 silently having your back to the death and doing what I was told to the best of my ability, I've got absolutely nothing to offer. Unless you want food, I can cook really well.

In my better years in SOUND, I was tasked with making sure new recruits got their stuff moved to our highsec home, settled in and organized, and a basic rundown of how we operated things. In my off time I provided mining boosts and support when mining fleets in highsec weren't an endangered species, and I'd help the newer people run mission fleets to get their standings up L4 missions wherever we were living at the time. I'd make T2 items to sell to the corp membership at build cost. But that was easy to do in a small corp that lived in highsec and PVP'd occasionally in null. It wasn't glorious, but it was my job. Which is why I consider the people I grew up with in SOUND, who left after I did, some of my best friends ever. I don't make friends easily, but I'm loyal to a fault.

But at the end Xavier was right, I am useless. I offer nothing of benefit, I am just a waste of a member space with a bad attitude.

Aey's mail wasn't meant as blackmail or a threat, but a plea.