Situation with RCT 19

    Hello all,

    This is, as I'm sure you are all aware, something of a touchy subject. We've all had friends come and go in this Unit over the years. They've all been welcome to take their leave and strike out on their own or place their allegiance as they see fit. We're all volunteers. I'll do my best to avoid stepping on any toes or hurting any feelings while still maintaining and clearly outlining the stance that we in Command have taken on this matter. The departure of many of our members to join their ranks hits hard, but it's not the first time we've weathered this storm. A Command announcement has followed each "exodus" of membership, and this one will be no different.


    What is going on.

    Colonel Savage and I have been in contact with Captain Tigernan of RCT 19. Yes, the very same Captain Tigernan who once walked these halls. We understand his intentions, we've cleared up some issues that cropped up during their starting days and we have agree, together, to press onward in a civil - and hopefully friendly - manner.

    To clarify a few things that have been going about on the rumor mill:

    RCT 19 had originally posted documents to their website that were direct copies of ours here. They still had the "15th MEU(SOC) Realism Unit" wording in them. We contacted the moderators at a few well known community sites and got them involved. As soon as this situation was resolved, we informed the moderators and RCT 19's recruiting status was restored.

    Several members have "jumped ship" to join their ranks. This, in and of itself, is perfectly acceptable. Anyone here is free to leave whenever they like. There are no contracts and we cannot hold you to any term of service. What is troubling, and the reason Command has authorized bans on their accounts, is confirmed messages within these forums promoting the RCT 19 and providing points of contact for members to leave here and join their ranks. This is unacceptable.


    Why we are handling this the way we are.

    7-5.7. Failure to Obey Order or Regulation
    Any member that fails to obey official written orders or regulations as posted by the Command Staff may be punished by Letter of Reprimand or as directed by an Office Hours.
    7-5.9. Espionage
    Any member found to be providing unit specific information to any other person or unit, without the effective consent of the Command Staff, is guilty of espionage and shall be punished by Dishonorable Discharge from the unit.
    8-6. Dishonorable Discharge
    Discharge from the unit for any condition met under a Bad Conduct Discharge, with the addition of behavior after the discharge deemed as an attempt to bring discredit or dishonor to our 15th MEU. The following are examples of criteria for Dishonorable Discharge: disrespectful actions or words towards the 15th MEU and its members, plagiarizing our policies and applications in forming another unit, spamming forums/message boards with derogatory comments directed toward the 15th MEU or its members, threatening members, threatening to hack our servers, or entering our game servers and griefing. Offenders are reduced in rank to Private and banned from our forums, Ventrilo and all game servers, and are never welcome back.


    Many of us have spent a lot of time and put in a lot of work making this Unit what it is today. This has come in the form of written documents for policies and procedures, training plans, actually leading training events and operations, providing server support, providing expertise in out-of-game fields to assist, and so on. We take pride in what we do here and our goal is to protect the contributions that members have made and the original works that members have created, and to maintain the integrity of this Unit and unique experience we have built. To say that these things don't matter is absurd, and I'd be a lousy Commander to advocate "brushing it under the rug," so to speak. I've spent four years here guiding and leading the 15th. Most of your senior leadership has been here for over two and a half years.

    You can say "well this is just a game" and, honestly, that's a perfectly fine view to have on it. Each one of us checks in here for something different. Some enjoy the leadership experience, some enjoy just blowing stuff up. Either way, it's all still the same community and it is wise to respect what each member expects to get out of their time here. We in Command work to protect and stabilize this environment so that each of you can get the most out of your membership with us.


    Where we go from here.

    RCT 19 still maintains a few documents that very closely resemble ours. They are not the first to copy us, and certainly will not be the last. Our primary focus is, and always will be, the community here at the 15thmeu.net domain. To put it bluntly, we cannot pursue every single case of plagiarism and we will not divert any more than a small portion of our time towards contacting offending groups and finding resolutions. We have resolved the direct copy issue with RCT 19 and we have informed them of where we stand, and our terms on moving forward. Captain Tigernan has agreed with what we said and stated their policy on a few items and we are only getting involved further when a violation of any of these occurs. I'm not normally one to put my private conversations with others into the limelight but in this case it stands to reinforce what has already been said, provide a bit of the "other side" and to help segue into the next section of this discussion:

    Quote Originally Posted by Capt Tigernan, RCT 19
    Lastly I want to assure you that any prior 15th member that has come into our ranks was not in anyway recruited by a member here. First contact was made by them. The moment I decided to open a unit I discontinued loging into the 15th forum and game servers as I did not what there to be any misunderstanding. And again, I want to assure you that no recruiting is authorized anywhere other than our game server, forums and public ArmA community locations. Feel free to take any action you feel necessary if you find an RCT member violating that policy and message me so we may take disciplinary action on our end.
    This is why we stepped in and placed bans on several accounts. We were assured by RCT 19's CO that this would not be happening. When it first hit my desk, I confirmed it's validity with the involved members and decided on a course of action. These members of RCT 19 have violated our unit policy right here on our website, and violated the standing orders from their CO. To say that there is some disconnect between the head and the hands is fair, and we've tempered our response with this in mind. At this time we are waiting for a response from their staff.


    Standing orders.

    For now, the bans on their website accounts will stand. Should we reach a resolution with RCT 19 we will consider lifting the bans and reinstating a general access only account for their liaison of choice. All other accounts will be removed and further registrations, while they still maintain active membership with RCT 19, will be denied. You will find that this is fairly standard procedure for many units in this community. We've been very lenient on it until now.

    RCT 19 members are restricted to Ventrilo general lobby channels and the appropriate game server channel if they are playing ArmA.

    Any member of RCT 19 caught recruiting in any form, be it simply dropping links to their website/voice comms/game server/etc. or actively promoting their unit on any of our assets is bannable on the first offense. This includes providing information to public guests or 15th MEU(SOC) Realism Unit members alike.

    Interactions with members of RCT 19 will be done with the highest level of professionalism. If you cannot, for whatever reason, conduct yourself accordingly then you will escalate the matter up your chain of command until it is resolved.

    Ventrilo and Game Server Administrators will ensure that ban logs are reported correctly and promptly.


    What this means for you.

    Business as usual, I'm afraid. If you were looking for some great drama bomb to get involved in, it's not here. There's still plenty of training to attend, lots of great plans in the works to bring sections closer together in operations, and a nice long weekend coming up for most of us and a very nice recruiting server map to sink some time into. I expect that each of you will do your part to help strengthen and improve this Unit as we move forward, and that some might step up to fill recently vacated positions and responsibilities. If you've got an issue that has been bothering you, get it out and discuss it with someone. Work on the lines of communication you have with your teams and build up the comraderie within your ranks. You're a member of one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, realism units in the Armed Assault community. If you're on the fence about sticking around, consider what you can do to help rather than bailing out at the first sign of trouble.


    I'll leave this thread open for discussion. If you have any questions, this is the place to ask.


    Thank you all for your patience, understanding and your continued support and dedication to the 15th.

    Col J. Schultz
    Commander