Dear all Free Companies

[Ryuko]

When recruitment was still open in my FC, I would let the application linger... and for one very specific reason: there are people who join FCs and attempt to clean out anything they can from the chest. I give all of my members access to tab 3 (pots, food, etc) so there is easily a few million gil in products at everyone's disposal. I trust my members, but I don't trust random low levels that apply with generic messages like: "I want to join" even though they are a level 15 on their first job and have spoken to NO ONE about the FC or why they want to join. This may be presumptuous of me, but I have seen it happen several times -- and it's better to be safe than sorry. If I let applications linger, I'll see that they get withdrawn, and then that person applied and was accepted to another company... and then I hear about them swiping the chest and laughing about it (it's technically NOT against ToS since the FC leader allowed people of that rank to access certain things... aka, there's nothing you can do about it). That is exactly why I have taken down the ability to just apply to my FC. Anyone who speaks with us directly is more than welcome to join, but I do not just like blind invites or applications because that can lead to trouble. Whenever someone would apply with a realistic application (more than just "I want to join"), I would seek them out and chat with them.

[Lithera]

SNIP

This is what FC permissions are for. Create a probationary rank that everyone starts at for a week.

[Ryuko]

This is what FC permissions are for. Create a probationary rank that everyone starts at for a week.

That is a solution we considered, but the frequency at which we'd receive these 'fake' applications grew to be just too much. I made the decision to just turn off applications completely. If anyone wants to join, they can just whisper one of us or ask the person they meet in the FC how to join.