GCA: Galactic Commerce Association

[Publius]

Bit of a different vision there! 

was thinking more of very temporary membership by the transacting parties - just long enough to get the transaction done,
and payment in whatever's agreeable among the parties at the time of the transaction - probably diamonds, SLB, or ACB.

The cargo log of the transfer ship keeps a record of who added and removed what.  Since the AG server automatically provides proof, no extra mechanism is needed.
Likewise, no concern about transacting parties damaging or moving the ship, since the ship has no drives, remains at Earth (where it's safe), and transacting parties are only granted cargo rights (another AG server function).

[Pokeboy]

Here is new proposal then:

All trade must be made in either diamonds, CABs, ACBs, or SLBs of an agreeable level to both parties, and must be sent into the public corp. chat so that there are witnesses to the trade agreement. A trade may not be made in any form of a weapon. Once someone joins the corp., They may stay for 48 hours. No one may leave the corp., as if they leave before their time is up it shows they may not be following the trade agreement. The leader must kick people when their time is up. This is a minor offense and will only receive a warning, unless there is proof of only following the trade agreement halfway, which is cause for placement on the GCA KoS list. At any time during their stay, they may ask the leader for permission to use the GCA Transfer Ship, and, assuming it is not already taken, may keep it for 24 hours. All people on the GCA KoS list are officially embargoed by the GCA and may not be allowed to join the corp. to trade for any reason, unless they are pardoned. The GCA KoS list is enforced by member corps., while the GCA gains funds from sponsors, and in this way, the GCA gains its power from its members.

Time limits on stay and leave are necessary to make sure no one is ripped off or that the member isn't hiding from another non-GCA member corp. Other than that, I did miss a few things on my original proposal which I believe I have mostly patched up with this one. I was kind of in a rush because I had said I would have it done by yesterday.

[Publius]

Please consider removing the retention requirement for non-Sponsors?
Don't think it will play well with either Independents or corporates who aren't using an Alt.

Non-sponsor memberships shouldn't have to be longer than it takes to make a transaction, unless someone is a manufacturer hanging around until all inventory is sold.

Do need sanctions against a buyer who fails to pay or who shorts the payment.  Transfer Ship's log will show the "mistake", but escalating sanctions at different tiers of value and periods of delinquency (there will be actual mistakes) will be necessary to inspire confidence.

[raphael]

Yeah, we can keep the bylaws simple for now.

We don't want to put too much effort on it, only to be ignored by players/newbies later on. Our time would've been wasted. lol

We can modify/updated them as the trading volume increases.

My only comment is that corp chat gets deleted after 2 weeks. Might be better to have a dedicated trading thread here in the forum instead.

[Pokeboy]

I lowered it to 48 hours because of this, but I think it needs to be in the corporation because we can't have people in the corporation too long(except sponsors), but some players who are weaker and/or fresh from the academy don't get on every day(I would know this because of my corporation).

As for corp. chat vs. forum chat, I agree we should use a thread on the forum, because originally, that thread was going to be this, but now I suppose we should make a new one.

Also, raphael is right, we can always modify the bylaws if something doesn't work correctly.

[Publius]

Why have any minimum on membership time for non-sponsors?  Come in, make your trade, leave, or join and stay until your declared business (eg. selling these 16-WHG-L's at 10% markup) is done?  We need some rules for booting people if the number of folks lingering makes new member licenses expensive.  However, I'm not getting why people *have* to stay longer than they may want to?

[Pokeboy]

Please consider removing the retention requirement for non-Sponsors?

I don't need to remove it, this is a draft or a discussion, if you will. Nothing is final, and I'm not in charge of this anymore, I'm just running it by you guys.

Maybe you are right. Maybe they don't have to stay, but they should at least not be allowed to leave until both sides of the trade agree that they have gotten what they wanted. Also, wouldn't making it a powerful corporation make more new players see it when they look on the top corps. page, encouraging more trade, sponsorship, and growth? I think that a minimum on membership would help with that, or at least making the transfer ship have some high level MAUs and SHGs on it.

[Publius]

One thing we don't need to worry about - currency. 

SPQNR has 2 Stations at Earth's Moon buying and selling Diamonds at cost to the public.  As long as that continues, anyone who wants to buy something can go to the Moon and buy some diamonds, then go back to Earth and make their transaction.  The seller likewise goes to the Moon to sell diamonds and get $s. 

Only cost for using diamonds as currency is the small amount of fuel needed to get to the Moon and back 

[Pokeboy]

Is the trade of Armor, Shields, and WHDs illegal because they count as 'weaponry', or is it legal since they can't be used to attack anyone? What about 'illegal' modules like the CREM or the EMJO?

What if only certain people had the right to sell a type of module? I was thinking about a promotional for joining in the next month where all corporations who joined in the next month could sell WHDs for 'pirate-hunting season'. How does that sound? I want to make sure it is fair to all, but I don't want it to be tiny either, and a promotional campaign selling exclusive rights to the sale of a module would probably help this grow alot.

[sargas]

Let it be known that if I do participate in this venture, I will sell what I can.
It's all about profit.
If that means weaponry, so be it.

[Pokeboy]

(as long as I don't find myself staring down the barrel of a payment I made, so no military mods ;-)

This is why we don't want weapons being sold by GCA-member corporations. No reason to provoke war, it does that well enough by itself. I still agree with this, but, as I said with the exclusive rights of selling things, could always sell weaponry as an exclusive access if we must. it would also be frustrating if someone who was higher leveled than me, but still a GCA-member corporation, and therefore allied, say you, sargas, sold a Mk.MMM Death ray to someone, and then that independant became a pirate and attacked all GCA-member corporations, including me, even though I had nothing to do with it. I wouldn't be happy with that, and I doubt you would either. Of course, this is all a hypothetical scenario, but you get my point, right?

I know a weapon of that high caliber could do some serious damage to some of us low level people, and I would rather not see that scenario happen IRL.

P.S. I have been looking for an excuse to use that emoji for a while.

[Publius]

If EOS wants to sell weaponry, think we'd be better having them in and selling, than out
This thing is still evolving..

__
100-ACB (advanced) are completed and reserved for the transfer ship.  I'm keeping the two Factory ships that built them idle for now, while we see if there's interest in low-level mods.  However, so far the response is underwhelming  
cf. http://forum.astro-galaxy.com/index.php/topic,9938

[sargas]

I just don't want my commerce to be regulated to the point where I can't sell this or I cannot buy that.

Any module that I can build is a commodity, and is subject to sale.
Any module built by anyone is a commodity, and is subject to purchase.

I will not sell any exotics (they belong to the Empire).

I will only sell weaponry that corresponds to a client's power level.

for example:
power level 250000 - 1000000 /  up to MKV
pl 1000001 - 5000000 / up to MKX
etc. etc. etc.

other (non-weaponry) modules will be available at the established GCA pricing.

...

And remember that the only Enemy of the Empire (as of now) is Sol Commodity Exchange Stations. Because of their price caps on everything, they themselves can under cut your prices.

...
'tis a monopoly that I do not agree with...

[Pokeboy]

I will only sell weaponry that corresponds to a client's power level.

Well that is good to know. As long as you do that, I don't see any increased pirate threats, although, I'm level 1000000, and I certainly don't have modules anywhere near that caliber. My highest level modules is Mk.CLVI, I believe...

100-ACB (advanced) are completed and reserved for the transfer ship.

Good to see we are making good progress on that, at least.

[Pokeboy]

Ok, I think I figured out how the whole funding system will work.

1) Sponsors donate funds to start up the corporation/complete projects.

2) GCA has taxes on trades and interest on loans form a new idea, GCA bank.

3) Profits from these are sent to leader/sponsors as salaries, so that, eventually, all the sponsor donations are paid back and then some.

Taxes are not necessary if we can avoid them. GCA bank is basically a stockpile of diamonds. Loans in diamond are given to be returned with a certain amount of interest such as 10%. In this way, GCA gains money to pay salaries and fund projects. I think this is pretty stable, what do you think?