Real Rules Of The GFC

by snapper Desade

Its hard when you've been inside any organisation for any length of time to sometimes remember what that body stands for. We have a habit as people to place our own interpretations on something or maybe we would like our ideas to be the standard so try to enforce them by stealth upon those who don't know any better.

Time and time again, you may hear terms like "You must call me sir" and "who do you think your talking to lower  grade officer". It's not until you look at the groups code of conduct you'll find that these aren't valid phrases at all.

Code of Conduct

Regulation A - Code of conduct states:

4.4 Method of address: Respectful address will be used at all times. A superior may refer to a subordinate by either their name, Mr/Ms then their name, or rank then name. A subordinate should refer to their superiors by either sir/ma'am or rank then name. Using just names are to be left up to the superior being addressed to decide if it is appropriate.

This section never says "must", with regards to how people should be addressed, but as highlighted states "May" and "should". These are clearly requests, not orders. The GFC was never intended to be full on Military but have military aspects, Talking to one of the members who helped write this document it was made clear that the rules stop short of it being an actual order. So anyone who is stating it is an order is going against the wishes of the admiralty and the authors of the document and with that would be violating Regulation A.

Another thing to consider is especially regarding how people comment about others.

Reg A - 4.1 does a good job in answering that.


4.1 GFC members are considered professional and courteous, respecting the rights, privileges, and authority of other members. Although GFC has a hierarchy of ranks, all members shall be treated with respect and dignity, no matter what their rank. It is not acceptable for any member to belittle or make negative comments to another member in public.

The sentences in red clearly show that rank doesn't give you the right to be rude or officious, snide remarks and negative assertions are not acceptable at all, as in "looking at watch" comments and those that are subtle put downs, these are especially true during peoples GM reports and are incontrovertible Violations of Regulation A.

What has been shown here just by highlighting 2 subsections of a regulation, it completely changes the dynamic of what is deemed acceptable behaviour and proffers up the facts that what many think they've been allowed to do is  in fact not correct at all and just because it could be also written in a academy course, if that course hasn't followed the primary document then it puts the whole course into question.

Please read the regulations which are for public consumption, Note down the ones that are appropriate to a given situation your concerned with and follow the rules set down by the owners of this sim, not by other people who claim they know them.

GFC Regulations HERE