PVP is what we do. PVP is our religion.
PVP is the sole reason for this alliance's existence. It is the reason why, until the WoWification of EVE is complete and all meaningful interaction between players is rendered impossible, FIGL will always exist. What this means is that our sole reason for playing EVE is to work towards the deliberate destruction of other players. Your game time is devoted to this goal and all actions, directly or indirectly, lead to this end. When a FIGL pilot goes into a fight, his only care is how many ships he can reduce to wreckage before dying in a spectacular fashion. Kill/Death ratios do not matter. Isk efficiency is a passing thought. The killboard is a collection of quaint statistics outside of the game. Tears in local are an unintended amusement and nothing more. We PVP for PVP's sake, to engage in organized warfare with other sentient beings, not an easily predicted computer program running on some server in the UK.
PVP is not to be treated as a quaint little hobby you do on the side when you're done mining veldspar or shooting at rats. It is also not to be treated as somehow being a source of income. The payoff of PVP is the bright shiny "pop" when an opponent's ship dies. Whatever drops is irrelevant crap, to be kept or discarded by whoever gets to the wreck first.
This does not mean "never make isk". What this means is the isk that you do make is done in a way that is as quick and efficient as possible; it is treated as a penitence to pay for losing your ship and/or needing a new one. Making isk for its own sake, acquiring possessions for its own sake, or even wanting to possess sovereign space for its own sake are anathema to PVP - that way is not our way.
Though it wasn't always so, Eve's general public becomes more and more oriented towards PVE with each passing year. What this means is that for every PVP pilot active at any given moment there are at least hundreds, if not thousands, of borderline-NPC PVE farmers, blundering their way through Empire space and occasionally moving into lowsec or 0.0. They are legion, and with the ever-growing size of null blocs, their (insert low-skill knee jerk reactions to PVP) are increasingly more dangerous to deal with. As a PVP pilot, your advantage lies in being more experienced, more knowledgeable, and most importantly more integrated with your fellow PVP pilots. Putting personal differences aside and working with each and every member of your alliance is of paramount importance.
Publicly voicing your dislike of a fellow member or treating them with a complete lack of respect will not be tolerated. You don't have to like them, but you do have to respect them and work with them. Our superior ability to work as a group is what truly separates "us" (PVPer) from "them" (dumbass carebears). Left unchecked, a blatant disregard of this principle is capable of inflicting more damage to the alliance than any drake blob or capital hotdrop could ever hope to achieve.
However, this does not mean we will all be holding hands and singing kumbaya together. If you do something stupid, you will be told that you are doing stupid things. If you are stepping on an FC's comms, regardless of whether your intentions were good or not, you will be told to shut up. Doing stupid things and stepping on comms are two perfect examples of breaching principals and the given responses are entirely appropriate reactions by senior members.
An often overlooked fact is that this principle does not only apply to newbie pilots. It is imperative that senior pilots exemplify this principle in their interactions with others, especially among newbie pilots. An attitude of "do as I say, not as I do" has no place within this alliance. Lead by example, and though you may not particularly enjoy every individual pilot's personality or attitude, you are not only encouraged to help new pilots integrate, you are REQUIRED. If you see a newbie pilot doing something stupid, don't call them stupid and leave it at that. Not only is that useless bullying, it will galvanize them into doing the same stupid thing over and over again out of spite. Offer suggestions on what they could do better, with as many possible alternatives as you can think up. By improving them, you improve the whole of the alliance. If they continue to refuse to improve, don't troll the shit out of them publicly. They will be dealt with.
This principle also applies to other pilots, corporations and alliances outside of FIGL, to a certain extent. We will respectfully stay out of local and smile and act nice as we string them up by their balls and light them on fire. Smacktalking in local is worse than useless, and it paints the entire alliance in the same light. There are very few people in the whole of Eve that can pull it off gracefully. You are not one of them.
Pay attention to intel channels, to voice comms, and most importantly to your FC. Know the game mechanics in detail (without 'sperging out about minutiae, of course), know what role you serve in any given fleet, and if applicable try to cover any roles that a fleet is missing (Is the fleet armor or shield? Do they need a light dictor? Do they need another logistics? Do they need more DPS?). When you die, for whatever reason, analyze it and think about what you could have done differently. Above all, always strive to be a better, more competent, more aware pilot. Being ignorant is not acceptable; educate yourself, either by deferring to the knowledge of senior pilots that have more experience than you, or through brutal trial and error in disposable ships until you get it right. The cruzah op is provided to teach you by both of these means, as painlessly and enjoyably as possible.
This principle is the simplest to explain by far, and you should come to adhere to it naturally over time. If you do not then there is something horribly wrong with you, and you're likely in the wrong alliance or wrong game entirely.
Are you idle? Are you bored? Do you wonder why there are no kills on the killboard lately? Are you wondering why there is no PVP? Do you wonder when somebody's going to find a target? Do you wonder when somebody's going to take out a fleet?
If any of these questions apply to you, then the answer is right in front of your keyboard. If you want to get something done, if you need to be entertained, or if you're worried about the state of the killboard for some inane reason then it is YOUR personal responsibility to do something about it. Get in a ship - any reasonably mobile, decently fit t1 hull will do - gather some alliance mates if you can, and go kill something. Organize FIRST, then go hunt for targets.
The leadership exists to organize and guide the membership when necessary, and when they are active they are the example to follow. They are not babysitters; it is not their job to entertain you whenever you are bored.
What we mean by "leadership", to state it plainly, is that you choose at all times to become part of a solution rather than part of a problem. You act, rather than react. We are a collection of individuals, not a cult of personality with a mass of blind followers, and the end-goal of every single pilot in FIGL should be to become a capable, competent, respected leader of men (and sometimes women).
There are a great many alliances in EVE that are more than happy to take in people with no initiative or will of their own, and are more than happy to dictate your every action from the moment you login to the moment you logout. We are not one of them, and we never will be. If you cannot make your own fun, if you refuse PVP on your own terms without someone holding your hand, or if you are averse to the idea that you might have to use your brain while playing a spaceship video game, then FIGL may not be the right place for you.
There is one group of pilots that gets a pass when it comes to this principle: genuine less-than-a-month-old newbies that have zero understanding of game mechanics and therefore are virtually incapable of acting on their own to any positive results. It most certainly IS the responsibility of the leadership as well as the alliance as a whole to actively help them get on their feet. (See: Principal #2)
FIGL is in essence a meritocracy. We respect one another based upon merit - merits in this case being defined by our principals and how each individual chooses to follow them in their own way. When we promote an individual to the next level, it has always been understood to be based upon their INDIVIDUAL actions in game. Unlike a vast majority of corporations in EVE, we do not promote simply because we think you're a good toady or that you have a good personality. We want adept pilots, we want talented FCs, we want competent advisors and teachers, we want creativity - essentially, we want future leaders.