Interstellar Services Department

What is The Interstellar Services Department (ISD)?

ISD is a group of volunteers who graciously share their free time in order to assist in a variety of tasks that all go towards supporting and enriching the players' experiences in the world of EVE. They answer questions from players, help hunt down and resolve problems, provide news and fiction as well as acting as good-will ambassadors throughout the community.

Ingame Abilities

ISD volunteers have little or no in-game abilities (on the Tranquility Server). They do not have access to the account information of players nor do they have the ability to create items in the game. They do not receive special items or equipment for their player characters. Their actions are closely monitored and they are not privy to information that is highly confidential.

Allegations of Misconduct

There have been few allegations of abuse of power by the ISD volunteers, but upon investigation, nearly all of these cases are proven to be false. To those outside ISD, the program is mysterious and the object of frequent misconceptions about what the volunteers can and cannot do. These misconceptions make the volunteers an easy target. They take accusations of abuse of power or other wrongdoing by the volunteers very seriously and investigate each thoroughly. On the rare occasion when a volunteer has broken the rules, he/she has been swiftly dismissed.

How to spot ISD members in EVE

Colored chat texts are used by the representatives of EVE. Their color chat signifies what position they officially have within EVE.

• Teal = ISD (Polaris) member - Volunteer support staff.
• Green = ISD (Polaris) Team Captains and Vice Admirals - Volunteer support staff.
• Purple = BH on Singularity

How to spot CCP employees in EVE

• Red and Yellow = Game Masters
• Blue = CCP Developer

How to join ISD

Log in to the EVE Player website and go to the sign-up page. Due to the volume of applications received, they are unable to respond to all applicants. If your application is approved, you will be contacted with further information about interviewing and training.

To apply for a position within ISD you need to be 21 or over and hold an active subscribed account in EVE Online. If you achieve these requirements then please fill out the online application, choosing the team that you wish to apply for and answering the questions to the best of your ability.

What are the benefits of joining ISD?

ISD is a volunteer team who do not get paid. They receive one free volunteer account which they can solely use for volunteering. This account has a few extra abilities which they need in order to do their job. Further details are classified.

Are you still allowed to play the game when you join ISD?

All ISDs do have player accounts, and yes, they can still play the game. However, while they are online with their volunteer character, they are not allowed to be logged in with their player account. In other words, they are not allowed to mine ice while monitoring the help channels as ISD.

Can they give me <X>?

The short answer is no, they can not. ISD Volunteers are not allowed to hold items or ISK on their volunteer characters. Adding to not having anything to give, ISD is not allowed to interfere with any player business or other activities that could be seen as giving anybody an advantage (which includes giving people items, obviously).

Teams within ISD

Community Communication Liaisons (CCLs)

The CCL team are a group of volunteers who monitor the official EVE Online forum. It is their goal to support the community by helping to maintain the forums as a healthy venue for discussion and enhancing communication between CCP and players. The CCL team can point out threads to the Community team who can then bring them to the attention of the relevant developers and teams. Simply put, the CCL can quickly bring issues to the attention of the Community team so they can get answers to the players as quickly as possible.

First, CCL are volunteer moderators who help to maintain the EVE Online forums as a healthy venue for discussion. Additional information about this aspect of the program can be found in CCP Navigator's dev blog.

Second, the CCL team acts as a conduit between the EVE Online developers and the players. Their volunteers point out threads of interest to the Community team and, by extension, to the relevant developers. The EVE forums are an awfully big place, and it is very easy for important feedback to get lost. CCL strives to ensure this does not happen.

Last but not the least, CCL help their colleagues in the ISD STAR department to answer any questions that new players might have, and to run interesting projects for the community at large.

The CCL team members must be patient, diligent and be able to conduct their duties objectively and without bias. While all volunteers should be sufficiently fluent in English, they welcome German, Russian and Japanese speakers as CCL has individual sub-teams dedicated to working on their localized forums.

Equipment Certification and Anomaly Investigations Division (ECAID)

ECAID stands for "Equipment Certification and Anomaly Investigations Division". They are the Bug Hunters, those who volunteer behind the scenes to assist CCP in the attempt to ensure releases are bug free, exploits are quickly identified and excluded, and code testing for release patches. They are present mainly on the internal and external test servers. You will see them on Singularity, they are the ones with purple text, you'll also find them on the coldfront irc network, within #eve-chaos.

Their department members are from all corners of the globe, and their work is under a voluntary basis, although run to the strictest of operating conditions.

Bug hunters are one of the oldest part of EVEs volunteer program, starting with everyone who ever played Beta. Formalized now in the ISD department of ECAID, they are still referred as the Bug Hunters.

If you wish to contact the ECAID team you can email them at [email protected]. You can also join their IRC channel #eve-chaos and speak to one of their captains.

If you are interested in regression tests, testing the limits of game features and generally getting into the thick of game mechanics with the goal of making the EVE Universe a better place, then you might be interested in joining ECAID. It may take some time till the leads will be able to check your application. Applicants will be subject to a background check pertaining to their activities within EVE Online and successful applicants will be required to sign an ISD Terms of Service and Non Disclosure agreements.

Interstellar Correspondents (IC)

The IC team are a group of players who dedicate their time and energy to ISD to bring a wealth of news to the universe of EVE, surrounding anything and everything to do with player-driven events. From fleet battles through racing leagues to alliance tournaments, they aim to bring a broad spectrum of news coverage straight to your screen. Their reporters find stories, research them, interview relevant parties and produce the player news that can be found in the Player News Center, on the login screen and in-game. In more general terms, it is IC’s goal to become the source of player-driven news within the universe of EVE and a news organization that stands out from that which exists in any other MMORPG, past, present and future.

The Interstellar Correspondents, in short IC, are a division within the Interstellar Services Department (ISD). It contains both long standing and new members. As mentioned above they are responsible for the news you see in game, in addition they also have embedded reporters who are responsible for the news items you see in the faction warfare militia screens. You can read more about them here.

They are looking for enthusiastic, self-motivating players with a core interest in player skills to assist with producing their output. Very solid writing abilities and the aforementioned passion for their output is a requirement of every applicant. The division is an amazing, vibrant, friendly, team-oriented place to be in and if you wish to be a part of this, you are encouraged to apply without delay you won’t regret it.

Once you have applied you may have to wait a short time for the application to get processed by the volunteer team leads who, if they think you are suitable, will invite you for an interview and you then begin your application process. Applicants will be subject to a background check pertaining to their activities within EVE Online and successful applicants will be required to sign an ISD Terms of Service and Non Disclosure Agreements.

Mercury (M)

ISD Mercury(M) works closely with CCPs content division to create new fiction and stories thus enriching the fictional background of the EVE universe.

Mercury have worked on several key projects including the Region Descriptions (of which they wrote the majority), storylines introducing new patch content such as the black ops ships and the boosters, the Code Aria Inquiry, fiction news for the Alliance Tournament and various other storyline and descriptive works for CCP content/storyline.

The ongoing work of Mercury concentrates mostly on articles in the faction sections of the player news center as well as in the faction specific militia news pages.

The work in this team is varied, there are generally multiple projects running at any one time and the team members need a very good understanding of the fiction of EVE and a good writing ability to be able to join Mercury.

Support, Training and Resources (STAR)

Support, Training and Resources (STAR) is the branch of the ISD volunteer program that helps with player support. They specialize in helping players, new and old with any questions or problems they may have. One of their duties is to personally greet new players, giving them a good start in the game as well as welcoming them to the Eve universe. They also maintain a presence in the help channels providing moderation, support and answering questions where required.

STAR is looking for volunteers with extensive in game knowledge and the ability to cope with stressful situations:

• Age of Applicant: You must be at least 21 years of age to be a member of any ISD team. This is not to discriminate anyone, it is simply because you are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement when you begin your work with ISD:STAR and if the applicant is under 21 years of age, this document is not legally binding. If ISD receives an application from an applicant under 21 years of age, it will be rejected. You are welcome to reapply once you turn 21. Other than the minimum age group, there is no cap.

• Account Status: ISD obviously cannot accept trial and disabled accounts. If you are on the 14 day trial, your interest in the team is appreciated, however 14 days is not enough time to have experienced all you need to have experienced to be a contributing member of the volunteer team. Applications from disabled accounts will be rejected with no further response. If you have a pending application, it is advised that you keep your account active.

• Previous Disruptions in the Help Channels: If you are a player who's been known to disrupt the help channels (these things are being logged) you will not be allowed to join STAR.

• Poor Applications: Quality and quantity are important here. One line answers are less likely to be successful. There are a number of people who apply to ISD only for the benefits and not to help others. This is not what STAR is looking for. Try and write a few sentences whenever the application allows it. This doesn't mean you have to be bland either, think about it as your resume or CV. You can give us the information we need whilst still injecting personal flair into it.