TCS: Public Information

Somewhere in the background of everything else, I am working on my Public POCO Project (I just made that name up).

It is not common in Eve for us to share what we do. Tips and tricks of the trade are closely guarded secrets. Not only does one worry about others infringing on their business there is also the worry of people trying to stop said business. When I first started writing about TCS, Detta asked me if I was worried about someone coming and trying to stomp me out of business. At the time, I pondered the idea and decided that I was not. The philosophy that I had decided upon with my market was that it was an experiment. I would not cease my normal ISK making activities. If TCS failed I'd be left with a series of lessons. Sometimes we have to pay for them.

There is also the low grade paranoia that many of us develop. While we have our social circles and our trust relationships there is a larger world out there. That paranoia is not developed without reason. People spend their time hunting people in this game and they do it with more than spaceships. To write about these things can make it worse. When Von Keigai wrote about his wormhole being burned down he wrote about it honestly. When Foo picked it up, someone commented that the bloggers can easily become targets because of the blogging.

I've been told that blogging is an egotistical thing for me to do. It may be. I normally glower. Who wishes to think of themselves as egotistical? But, there can be truth in that.  I write about myself. I write about what I do. And I am proud of TCS going against proper practice. I went from knowing absolutely nothing about the markets to managing a sustainable business and carving myself out a piece of Eve. As much as TCS is my project I've never considered it to be about me as a person. It was more about my leveraging my abilities to do what I wanted to be done.

And I shared that. I compare myself to others, especially traders quite often. I know what I do is a bit different and it does not satisfy any best way. I do wish my skills were more in the tens of billions a month area. But it is what I like to do. When I decided to try out POCOs it fell under the same realm as TCS does.  "Can these things make ISK with low taxes?" There is a qualifier there. It is why TCS is selfish. I refuse to lose money in the project. I'm fine with not making money. To an extent I fall into 'the minerals I mine are free' crowd. It just happens that TCS has been successful, much to my delight.

Today, I stumbled upon a great resource for my POCO information. I'm still working on it as a project but I had to make a decision to share my store's information. That was a major decision. As open and transparent as I try to be I am very private about some things. Deciding to share TCS's information means I'm letting people see all of the mistakes and stumbles that I make day to day. That is always uncomfortable. But, drawn by the larger goal of producing POCO numbers for my own interest and the interest other's have expressed, I decided to make that leap.

Depending on how things go, there is a potential to share that information to the public. It would not be the heart and soul of TCS but it would be all of my POCO information. Were they are, what types, and who is using them. And that is were my worry is.

How private does one consider the users of the POCOs? If I where to publish it, would it bother said users? I'm not worried for myself. I've put my information out there and all I'd do it make it easier for someone to accomplish what they could anyway if they felt the need to try to destroy my POCOpire. Part of this life in low sec is that I will lose things. I often do not want to lose them but I cannot function in this place if I do not both recognize and accept that loss. I've made TCS a public thing. I've shared my starter spreadsheet and my process with anyone who has asked. I'm not ashamed of anything in TCS's API.

But, other's information is different. While one can watch the POCOs and figure out who visits what, I'm not sure how to consider that journal information. The goal of TCS and my projects isn't to make life harder for someone else at the expense of my desire to write about topics. I am not a journalist. I'm an Eve player who writes about what they do. I don't want to stomp across other people for a project that is about improving things for other people.

One way or another I'll get my POCO numbers soon. Separating them from my wallet entries was the ugly part. With the other data I have access to I'm thinking of just showing some general planet types/monthly income type things. I'm not sure yet what I want to feature. Maybe X million a month is good enough. I'm not Eve-Prosper but I hope to put together something interesting.