Editing War Decs and the Credo (section)

=== The Long Answer ===
A war dec, which we stay [[Policy:War_Dec_Eligibility|intentionally eligible for]], is merely a bribe to CONCORD to look the other way so that someone else ''can'' aggress us without repercussions. It is in itself not an act of aggression. So the idea that we, peaceful explorers, would have any reason to initiate an attack on war deccers is well outside the intent of the Credo's self-defense clause. That clause was intended for "in the moment" situations where you get jumped in a site or something and need to respond to aggression with aggression in an effort to save your ship.

With war decs, we know where that trade hubs are where war deccers are likely to be found and thus we can ''easily'' avoid them. It is therefore in no way justifiable as self-defense to initiate aggression on them. On the (thankfully) very rare occasion that one of us kills a war deccer, Signal Cartel Leadership will immediately suspect baiting, which as you know is prohibited by the Credo. Those inquiries are ''quite'' thorough. In fact, certain kinds of losses that smell of baiting are also investigated. People have been removed from Signal Cartel when our inquiries show evidence of baiting. You can avoid this fate by just staying out of the path of war deccers.

A former Director, [https://evewho.com/character/92663206 Helios Anduath], wrote a post in the old subreddit which explains nicely our response to war deccers and why we don't engage them. Here are the relevant bits from that post, edited to be in keeping with current policies and to remove outdated statistics:

* Highsec wars always have a reason. Contract, easy kills, profit, revenge, retribution, griefing, tears harvesting or even as part of a larger campaign against an entity are all reasons behind a war. While we have had contracts taken out against us in the past and the behavior of some (former) members have triggered others, by and large we are seen as easy targets.

* Easy targets are great for corps who are in the mercenary game as it means they can improve their ISK efficiency. This is one of the metrics people hiring mercs use to determine how good they are; the more they kill, the more contracts they get and the more ISK they make. Other war-dec groups keep an eye on the performance of their competition and if they see lots of juicy kills, they want some of the action and throw their own dec in. These two reasons are the most reasonable explanation for why we are war-decced in rotation by the same few groups.

So, why are we seen as easy targets?

* One reason is that we typically have enough losses--often including spendy pods--in any given war dec either through lack of knowledge, inattentiveness, or complacence to keep them ISK positive.

* Another reason is the type of losses that we suffer, which also mark us as easy kills. We are caught in loaded haulers and blingy mission/ratting boats in addition to exploration ships full of valuable loot.

* Where we lose these ships is another indicator of how easy we are to find and kill. Most of our war losses happen at trade hubs (Jita, Amarr, and Dodixie, mainly), near trade hubs or on major trade routes. Our record of losses shows that deccers don't have to spend much effort to find a kill if they dec us, making us even more attractive.
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