EVE New Citizens Q&A

What are some general tips for finding out if a corporation is active?

I have been spending some time in the english recruitment channel, and some of these advertisements look promising, but when I inspect the corporation it usually has less than 10 members, or was just created, and it seems to be that the perks advertised in the ad are simply impossible with such a small group. Often the founding CEO's character is only around a month old, which I guess could be due to skill requirements to create a corp (CEO alt).

I am also concerned about being absorbed into a corporation that just wants me in it to absorb taxes to fund some other active corporation.

It seems really difficult to read between the lines and actually find something that is 'real', if that makes any sense at all. Since corporation history is tracked, I'd like to avoid littering my history page with many corporations that didn't work out. I don't want to be seen as a corp hopper, so I am trying to make the most informed decision possible.

TLDR: What are the warning signs that a corporation is poorly run, or simply there to fleece newer pilots.

Join in on some NPSI outings. Not application or API checking or asset movement required. Interact with the people there, get a feel for who you enjoy spending time with, and approach them about joining their home corp.

The biggies (imho)
- It does the things your interested in.
- It has enough people logged in when you are so that co-op play can be a thing.

Optional stuff
- It's organised.
- It's flexible.
- Their cat sings to you.


edit
sorry I got lazy .. and distracted by a singing cat video.

do they have a recruitment channel?
If so spend some time in it.
Ask lots of questions in it.
You'll also see how often official recruiters are online and active in their channel.
You'll also see how often ordinary members are active in the channel.

do they have an official forum recruitment post?
read it.
are there more 'bump' posts than any other type.
does it (and any proper posts in it) contain good info.


You can get lucky, and find a really good corp to be in on the first attempt.
You can also be given false info and misled and join a corp that actually isn't what you're looking for.
It's no biggie if that happens, you can leave really easily.
And maybe learn something, or a few things in the process.

All of these suggestions have some strong points and some weak points. The Highlight reel:

Find a corp that does what you want to do.
Find a corp that is active when you are, AND has enough people online to be active. This is a social construct.
Even if you want nothing to do with PVP, you need to look at Zkill. The reason for this: You need to make sure whomever you're planning on joining isn't losing lots of ships every day. A few losses happen. But someone who loses many every day may not be the right place, unless you want that kind of thing.
Ask questions.
Friendly Fire off is a good option for high sec corps in particular.
Dive in. It's just as easy to leave a corp if it doesn't suit your liking.


Eve uni is always a good choice, but they DO suffer from being under almost permanent war dec.

Join them on voice coms. If the "CEO" is the only one greeting you, make your excuses and leave.

All of the above is good advice, but I didn't see another method that I've heard works well.

When you are doing something you like, you tend to notice others doing similar stuff. If so, chat them up and ask them about their corp and their choices to find one.

Sometimes you can fly with them for a while, maybe even have a trial basis with their corp. You can become friends and sit nicely in that corp, or maybe they do stuff you aren't really into, so you can thank them for their time and help and go do the same someplace else.

I have found that the players themselves are the best resource for corp knowledge.

You could even choose a corp based on WHERE they are. Maybe you like NRDS tactics, well, that's pretty much Providence region, so you go there and look around. Maybe you want a BIG LoSec PvP corp that has a good reputation, you can look at all their materials, but in the end, someone that actually flys with that corp and is willing to give you a few moments of their time to chat with you will likely be a more realistic picture of the corporation than their recruiters would give.

So don't forget that you can shop for a group of corp mates by actually asking those in the corp about it.

Stop it. You should have stopped while you were ahead because I'm about to go full off rant.

First of all Corp tax rate only affects BOUNTIES! So I'll just point out that Corp tax only affects BOUNTIES. It does NOT affect every aspect of PVE. There are PLENTY of ways to make isk in PVE without depending on BOUNTIES as your primary income as a newbie, again, especially in a group.

1. Blitzing missions. Most of the ISK made from missions is not from bounties, it is from LP store rewards. If you are making your primary income off the bounties then you're doing it wrong. Yes blitzing missons can be done better solo, but a newbie could pick up the loot. Since the majority of the income is from the LP store, the tax rate shouldn't be a big deal.
2. Dedicated salvagers and looters. Bounties don't affect salvage and loot sold on the market, and thus won't affect the newbie probably filling this role AT ALL.
3. Mining. Mining income is primarily from AGAIN, selling on the market, corp tax only affects shooting the rats, which in HS are laughable, and an inconsequential fraction of personal income.
4. Exploration. Whether it is hacking exploration or combat exploration, the majority of the income is AGAIN made off selling on the market, not bounties. If your primary income is off the bounties, You are doing it wrong.
5. Trade. Technically this is a pvp activity but it gets lumped with Pve because traders avoid combat pvp like any carebear. AGAIN, traders make all their isk off the market. My corp was actually a bit put out with me because they received no income from my activities, so I started donating to corp to contribute my share.
6. Hauling. Another pvp activity that is lumped with pve. Tax doesn't affect contract income, AGAIN.


High tax rates are often to encourage group participation. They are also used for temporary fund drive activities. A well led pve corp will realize that there is no such thing as a true pve corp and will have some kind of means for dealing with wardecs. Saving up to pay merc corps during wardecs is one responsible way for a pve corp to deal with them rather than the usual station huddle. So stop it with "the only reason" crap. If you can't think of a reason, that doesn't mean there isn't one, that means you have not applied sufficient thought.

My personal experience with corps is a low tax rate is usually a sign of a poorly led corp which is really just a glorified chat channel with no real group identity, with rare or nonexistent group activities. Which makes the low tax corps the ones designed to get more members and ultimately make the most passive isk from oblivious members. Remember that the way to catch flies is with honey, any corp that is a trap will be designed to look good, thus a trap corp will generally have a low tax not a high tax.

So cut the comments like, "The only reason the tax should ever be so high" because again, if you can't think of something, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist, it means you didn't think. Your inability to think doesn't make you right. The fact of the matter is, a mining or exploration corp couldn't give a damn what the corp tax is, they might just set it high to encourage idiots to find another corp. Yet another reason to have the tax rate high that you couldn't think of.

Yes there are corps out there that fleece members, but any corp that "fleeces" newbies is run by idiots. Newbies don't have anything worth fleecing.

The real fact of the matter is, any competent scam corp won't have signs that they are out to fleece new members in the corp add. The tells will come after you join and they offer to move your stuff to the corp headquarters for you. But Tax rate and Friendly fire are NOT automatic "move along" signals. They are, "contact the diplomats or recruiters and ask wtf?" signals. They might have no good reason, or after hearing their reason, it might be perfectly reasonable and no impediment at all.