The problem with CODE is their lack of proper honor among thieves. There is a proper way to be a mobster or a pirate, and anything less is being a petty band of thugs. As I promised, it's time for me to provide the first lesson on purpose, dignity, structure, order, guidance, and leadership.
To be honorable pirates, you must offer something tangible for those you wish to profit from. Taking CODE's mining permits as a good example, there must be reasonably guaranteed incentive for miners to buy the permits. Here is how this can be done.
Set aside a medium to large number of systems for which you will issue mining permits. Anything outside of this list of systems, the permits do not apply. A miner can then choose any number of those systems to be included in her permit. Each system has it's own price, and the expiration of the permit can be flexible as well. This provides maximum flexibility for the miner to choose where and for how long they wish to be able to mine and provides flexibility to the pirates in deciding which systems are included and charging different rates for different systems.
Just as miners must follow the rules, so must the pirates. Miners should be explicitly guaranteed that no pirate from within the pirate organization will gank a miner that is operating in a system for which they have a valid permit. Furthermore, as part of this guarantee, as incidents will happen, whenever a miner is ganked by a member of the pirate organization in a system for which they had a valid permit, that miner will be compensated by the pirate organization for ... lets say ... 125% the value of the mining ship, it's fittings, and cargo. This assurance gives the contract validity.
Pirates are allowed to bump permit holding miners not responding to chat that they think are AFK. That and other violations can result in warnings and/or revocation of the mining permit, but permit holders will be notified of permit revocation before any violent actions are taken against the miner. Furthermore, to avoid abuse or concern of abuse of issuing mining permits and then immediately revoking them, the pirate organization will agree to refund ISK spent on any revoked mining permit. If you want to get fancy, you can prorate the amount rather than refunding in full.
Pirates must therefore have a spreadsheet or other database of valid permit holders. I recommend having name lists grouped by system for quick and easy lookup. If a pirate wants to attack a miner, they check to make sure they are not a valid permit holder. If they are a valid permit holder, any violation of terms must be dealt with under the rules of the permits. Wrongly attacking a permit holder will likely result in the permit holder reporting the offending pirate to the pirate organization; the pirate organization will then compensate the miner and may optionally take corrective action against the offending pirate.
Pirates should clearly state that money collected from the permits are used to enforce the good ethics dictated by the permits and cover insurance costs of wrongly attacked miners. Of course, some of the money will just be going to line the pockets of pirates, but this little nuance need not be mentioned.
This is alot of rules for pirates to deal with, but it makes the racketeering far more palatable to the miners. You might find the miners become far more cooperative. Rates and what percentage of miners will pay them, of course, will be subject to what the market can bare.
Once you start following this practice or one derived from it -- congratulations, you are now honorable pirates.
No comments:
Post a Comment