RESPECT. What is it, and why is it mentioned here?

First, a little history.

This linkshell is now more than three years old. I created the linkshell back on November 28th, 2005. I created it as a direct result of some "shady" happenings in the Dynamis linkshell I was formerly a member of. In that shell, lotting rules were bent at the leaders' whims, and showed a lot of preferential treatment toward members they were friends with. One of my personal friends was removed from that linkshell because the leader did not like him, though of course it was spun differently. Basically, in that shell, if you were among the leaders' inner circle, you were taken care of well. If you were not, you were at best left to watch injustices occur, or at worst, were made an example out of by the leadership.

At that point in time, my friend who was kicked and I discussed the formation of a new linkshell. Our intention was to provide an outlet for people who were interested in succeeding and taking names in Dynamis, but who also wanted to do so in an environment where rules were not bent, favorites were not picked, and everyone (as long as they were within the bounds of the rules) was on equal footing in terms of AF2 and lotting. We had a lot of interest from the members of our previous shell, and some of them came with us in the formation of this linkshell. We started with a solid core group who knew how to get things done, and we experienced a lot of early success. Our name started to spread, and after more than three years of operation, we are now among the top Dynamis groups on Lakshmi, and probably across all servers.

Now, about respect: "What is it, and what does it mean to me, as a new member or applicant?"

In my opinion, being a respectful person is not merely a "plus" when considering you for membership, it is a requirement. In our linkshell, we expect both new AND old members to know their place when it comes to lotting on AF2. What I mean by this is, we want our members to consider the positions of others when deciding to lot on a valuable/rare piece of AF2. If you're lotting against a long-time member that's been waiting a long time for that piece, pass it. If you're a recent lot-changer and a valuable piece drops, consider those that have been main lotters for longer than yourself. If you're a veteran member and an AF2 piece drops that you're allowed to lot, but you have something equally as good in that gear slot, pass it because someone can likely make better use of the piece than you.

Respect is impossible to enforce, but it is easy to detect (and by extention, it is easy to detect a lack of respect as well). There are a lot of consequences for not being a respectful lotter, ranging all the way from just upsetting one person to getting removed from the shell for repeated offenses. Yes, it HAS happened.

So where are we going with this?

All we ask of our members is to consider others ahead of themselves when appropriate, and to just kick back and have a good time. We do our best to make Dynamis a fun, interesting event for our members while harvesting as much gear and currency from it as possible. That's a lot easier to accomplish when everyone is mindful of their fellow LS members!