I am scheduling this post to be posted automatically half a month from now. At that point our assets should be completely evacuated.
Noble Sentiments started out as an idea between a few older members of Sleeper Social Club. The idea was simple: create a C5 PvP corp that wasn't limited to innovating by directors who still had control of the direction of the corp but didn't actively play. Being led by severl who were big names and content creators in the USTZ particularly, Noble Sentiments gathered many USTZ folks from SSC who split off to join.
We settled into our home, a C5 Red Giant that was only chosen because it was already owned by one of our directors. We had our eyes set on a C5 Pulsar but ultimately diplomacy concerns meant that our plan of evicting the owners (some of whom included people like Lazerhawks) wouldn't be the best idea for a young corp.
However, early on, there was some disagreement at the director level about the direction of the corp (this was prior to me being appointed a director). Two of the biggest content creators ended up on a side against the rest of the directors and some comments made in poor taste by one of the directors at the time only served to exasperate the situation. While I advised my contacts in the directorship to quickly sort out the situation and ensure apologies ensued, it was too little too late and our two biggest content creators left for different pastures. At this point the director who made the initial comments was demoted by the CEO and other people, including myself, were appointed directors to fill in the gaps left behind.
Losing two of our biggest content creators was a big blow but not necessarily a devastating blow. We still had other content creators in the corp. However, for some people in the corp, the idea of being a small fish in a big pond was not their idea of a fun time. For others, the work required to get a new corp off the ground was not something they were interested in doing. Especially in a small C5 corp, every member needs to be on board to scan, create content, and make an effort to be around. This was more work than some people wanted to put in and other opportunities (i.e.: other established corps) were too appealing. Other people just vanished all together, which might have been fine in a big corp like SSC but was incredibly noticeable in our little group. Finally, several positive developments in our corp members' lives meant that some people just did not have time to dedicate to growing a small corp and being active.
All of these factors combined meant that we had a very small group of active individuals. This meant that content was far and few between, and with no EUTZ to speak of the USTZ was often logging into the same old chain from yesterday, usually end of life. We often times did not have enough people available to tackle some of the content we wanted to try. As the director responsible for recruitment, I worked incredibly hard to try to drive recruitment so that we could replenish our ranks. We did have interest from people who liked my recruitment ads, but unfortunately I was bringing one person in as two or more were leaving.
We switched our focus from big, expensive doctrines to small gang. This was ideal considering our smaller group of people and more focus on pilot skills. However, again, we just didn't seem to have the interest to sustain small gang work. While I wanted to drive content in this area, I was forced to spend weeks away from my computer in a dispute with my landlord followed by a move. By the time I had internet installed in my new place, activity even in the USTZ was barren. It's hard to blame anyone for that, as solo scanning the chain was something I did before moving and it was not fun to scan chains that no one was going to use.
Ultimately, the lack of participation is really what ended up killing Noble Sentiments. We started with a bunch of skilled people but I think the move out from SSC burned some folks out and perhaps others who agreed to come along were already burned out with Eve (or w-space) in general.
Do I regret coming along for this ride? No, I don't. I think that this corp could have been successful if things had panned out differently, starting with mitigating that director-level disagreement at the beginning and also by encouraging participation by having content from the very beginning.
It's unfortunate to see this good group of guys split up. I've been flying with them for a year and a half now and I've had great times with them. People are heading off in all different directions, some to bigger w-space corps and others are leaving for k-space or a hiatus from Eve.
Me? I don't know where I'm going to go yet. At this point I'm feeling a bit lost, like a piece of driftwood floating aimlessly in the sea being rocked by currents outside of its control. I was deferred from Waffles, a group I thought that I would excel in, due to an inactive killboard. And that deferral has really made me hyper-aware of the lack of killboard activity on my character. It also made me hyper-aware of the kills I was losing out on when I was flying support roles like logi when our whore drones were asked to be swapped for utility drones. One thought is to take the advice of my recruiter and join Pandemic Horde for "dank frags" and have some non-serious fun for a while, potentially joining Waffles later down the line. Other options include returning to Eve University to practice FCing in one of their campuses or join a small gang PvP group like Agony Unleashed. I would expect that my prospects of joining a C5 PvP group are low given my killboard metrics that make it seem like PvP is of no interest to me. Sadly metrics speak more loudly than experience as I've found out, so I might need to focus on racking up kills to apply to more serious corps in the future.
If you have suggestions for where I should go, I'm all ears. See you in space!
