[noybman]

I have had a number of people recruiting us as Beta to their armada, and have been approached as being an Alpha to a known smaller/weaker fleet.


Here is my POV on the idea/issues at hand:

1. ABSOLUTELY; no fleet is created equal
   
2. Members and leaders alike, come and go
   
3. The Armada system provides discounts and donation avenues in potentially both directions
   
4. When you marry your partner, you marry their whole family
   
5. The grass isn't always greener on the other side
   
6. If it isn't broken, don't fix it
   
7. Cryptic is going to
   

    Warning:
   fix it
   break it
   

I know I made quite a few generalizations above, but let me culminate it to a point:
Our fleet design works within the bounds STO provides us. Within our own ranks, we can always strive for improvement AND our max fleet capacity is not even close to effectively reached.

Joining with other fleets of any size with the Armada system adds potential political issues, people issues, more work, and still brings with it donation issues. Their fleets will have the same issues ours has, and this opens the door for grass is greener/or not greener (not that it isn't already open).

So my takeaway is that we should really worry about our own house before we worry about others, or conforming to others. We have a great group of members, I don't want to break that. We seem to do well with getting provisions and keeping projects cooking. We can always create our own farm fleet to enable more donations if that becomes the underlying concern. The % discount is negligible.

So, unless the "other fleets" are us, I'm very wary of signing up as a beta or an alpha. Please share your candid responses.