![\"\"](\"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/local-channel.png\" "\\"local")
<\/a>In some less-common situations, the member list only shows people who have actually spoken in that channel since you logged on, but in most cases, including Local in all of known space<\/em><\/strong>, the member list automatically updates to show everyone who’s currently in the same solar system.<\/p>\n This means that, in Eve, within known space (wormholes work differently), the very second that anyone enters the same solar system you’re in, you know, thanks to Local.<\/p>\n As a result, Local — specifically, Local’s member list — is more often used as an intelligence gathering tool than it is a means to chat with the unwashed masses of whatever backwater shithole you happen to be flying through at the moment.<\/p>\n Not everyone likes this.<\/p>\n There have been great fiery debates about whether or not Local’s member list should remain immediate (like it is now) or delayed (the way it works in Wormholes and some private channels, where no one knows you’re there unless you say something).<\/p>\n Which led to this conversation today:<\/p>\n “Man,” Em said. “I really wish we didn’t have automatic local out in the war zone. It’s so lame to have that much intel at your fingertips. It’d be so cool to see guys on directional scan in a complex and have NO idea of they were friendly or hostile — no Local list to compare it to and say ‘Well, I see three ships, and there are only two hostiles here and three friendlies, so it’s probably friendlies.'”<\/p>\n “Sure,” I replied. “Though it would<\/em> suck for us as well if they changed it.”<\/p>\n “We’d cope,” Em said. “Hell, we already deal with that every day up in the wormhole.”<\/p>\n “Definitely, but that’s the wormhole. Things should work differently up there. I mean…” I pondered. “We’re in low security space, but it’s still Empire<\/em> space, you know? The infrastructure is kind of messed up, but it’s still functional<\/em>.”<\/p>\n “Empire?” Em replied. “Why<\/em> would the Amarr or Minmatar or… hell, anybody provide intel about their own troop movements to anyone and everyone who can see the Local member list?”<\/p>\n “Well… they wouldn’t,” I said. “But I don’t think it’s really up to them — that’s just part of the deal with the technology. I don’t think they control it.” I shrugged. “Maybe CONCORD controls it.” I frowned. “Actually, I think it’s tied to the stargates somehow — like they’re relays or something — which is why the member list breaks out by star system, and why there’s other channels like one just for the local constellation of systems you’re in, and why it works the same way in High sec and Low sec and Null sec — all the same stargate technology.” Finally, I added, “That’d be why it doesn’t work that way in wormhole space — no stargates.”<\/p>\n There was a pause in the conversation. I turned back to the ship fitting I’d been assembling.<\/p>\n “You know what would be cool?” Em said, voice almost dreamy.<\/p>\n “I –”<\/p>\n “What would be cool,” he continued, “is if Local didn’t add you to the member list until you either used the channel… or used a Gate.”<\/p>\n I stopped, turning that idea over, then offered my analysis. “Huh.”<\/p>\n “I mean…” it didn’t even seem as though he heard me. “If it’s all attached to the stargate<\/em> tech, and you didn’t use<\/em> a stargate to get there, then…” He shook his head. “MAN that would be cool.”<\/p>\n “Wormholes,” I said, picking up on the idea. “You could — I mean, when you dropped out of a wormhole into a system in known space…”<\/p>\n “No one would know you were there,” Em completed the thought. “It’d make all those shitty class two systems with exits to Null sec SO<\/em> much more fun.”<\/p>\n “It’d be like having a black-ops drop capability for people who can’t fly black-ops ships yet.” I blinked. “Actually…”<\/p>\n “… black-ops jump bridges bypass gates.” Em finished.<\/p>\n “Regular Titan bridges too,” I said. “I mean –”<\/p>\n “– you’d see the beacon go up, but–”<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>