One of the fundamental tenets of the HMA is that we neither recognize nor issue permits in lieu of fleet participation. In other words, the only way avoid being griefed or ganked by the HMA is to be in an HMA fleet. This is an important distinction between us and other CODE-Friendly organizations. Most who follow the CODE demand payment for permits to allow you to operate in “their” space and mine “their” ore. Whether they actually honor such permits is a matter of debate. I’ve personally never paid for one so I couldn’t say but my gut tells me that they do not.
However, as a public NPSI fleet, it is important to understand that our rules only apply while in HMA Fleets. Simply put, we are neither responsible for nor care about what people do with their time outside of fleet. As a public mining/ganking fleet it is reasonable to assume that we will attract all kinds of ne’er-do-wells and they may very well ask for payment to “allow” you to mine. Outside the boundaries of the HMA fleets, that is perfectly acceptable. Now, I personally do not recommend paying but I consider you all to be capable of making your own decisions. However, within an HMA fleet, anyone attempting to extort ISK or otherwise disrupt our fleets will be dealt with the same as any hostile actor regardless of how little or how much they fly with us.
I like tater tots… 😛
That is permitted.