The founding principle of Ethical Retinue is that we aim to make for pleasant and memorable experiences on GTA Online with our fellow partners in crime. To aid its mission, the Ethical Retinue tries to adhere to the following rules:

1. Be polite, kind, and respectful to everyone, including non-members.
2. Don’t kill players (members or non-members) needlessly in freemode. Unprovoked attacks are absolutely not alright. If another player attacks you, but then backs off, do not keep going after them. Do not provoke players in chat, and do not engage in revenge killing. This said, being assertive is alright. For example, when attacked, you may simply distance yourself from the griefers by disconnecting from the lobby, or you may kill the player who is directly attacking you. Before you shoot, ensure the threat is clear. For example, you can ask the attacker to stop. If they stop, great. If not, do what you must to keep yourself safe.
3. Do not mod, cheat, or exploit the game, and avoid people who do. For example, explore the GTA Online career statistics on friend requests and check if the statistics make sense. However beware that game bugs can occasionally lead to strange stats. For clarity, here are some examples of what is and what is not allowed:
   • Online mod menus are absolutely not allowed, no matter the purpose. Anyone admitting to using or caught using online mod menus will be instantly banned.
   • Using the heist finale replay glitch by disconnecting at the end is allowed (though frowned upon).
   • Running guardian or other firewall tools to protect yourself against modders is allowed.
   • Using the start/cancel job technique for fast travel is allowed.
   • Offline mod menus for the Rockstar editor or external tools to extend the functionality of the creator for creative purposes are allowed. Important, if you do this: do not join online whilst you have mod files in your GTA folder.
4. In crew contexts, make every reasonable effort to ensure that the relevant people (members or non-members) can participate in conversations, particularly if those conversations are about them. So, do not talk behind people’s back. Even with the best of intentions, people may be quick to jump to conclusions without knowledge of the full facts or with a misunderstanding of the full facts. If there is no chance for those conclusions to be challenged by those involved, then that can lead to very toxic situations. When issues arise (also see guidelines further), it is particularly important to observe this rule. This is obviously requires some discipline from everyone, and taking care that the appropriate channel of communication is chosen to deal with whichever situation at hand (public channel, private group chat, and so on).
5. In crew contexts, please use English in public situations (such as crew forums and discord channels), and in non-public situations when playing with people who do not speak your language. Use of languages other than English inevitably leads to exclusion of people who do not master that language. Of course, saying a few words in a different language is perfectly fine. We embrace diversity. However, please avoid holding long conversations in other languages in situations where this risks excluding people who do not master that language.
6. In crew contexts, do not post content (on the forums, discord, …) which a reasonable viewer may not want to be seen accessing in a public or formal setting, such as nudity, pornography, or excessively offensive material.
   The above rules also apply to guests towards crew members.

The following rules only apply to members:

7. Share your loot fairly. For instance, when leading heist finales, please give all your helpers a 20% share instead of the default 15% (unless a helper explicitly volunteers for a lower cut). A 40/20/20/20 split is the fairest split, bearing in mind that the leader has an upfront cost and does not earn anything for the setup missions. It serves as a statement of appreciation and trust in the crew. Similarly, if people help you with your business, please help them in return, and don’t exploit people.
8. During missions, give everyone access to your personal vehicles, including non-members.
9. Travel together when it makes sense. Wait for people left behind. If they are far behind, offer a pick up or an escort.
10. Encourage communication over text or voice chat about mission tasks, who does what, and so on.
11. When with someone who has not done a mission before, where need be, walk them through the difficult steps and explain your actions, or give them specific tasks to do while you watch their backs.
12. When not sure how to best go about some part of a mission, ask for help.
13. Do not fuel the flames. Occasionally people are quite rude online. Just ignore them completely.

Subject to the above, otherwise, go completely nuts. 😉 Any serious offense against the crew rules (i.e. rude behaviour, constant negativity, modding/cheating, …) will lead to a kick or ban.

In case of issues, we suggest the following procedure. This procedure is also expected to be followed by guests and towards guests.

14. Approach and confront the person directly if you can. It is possible that you or the other party have misinterpreted something or that something has been badly communicated. Empathy is a key component of being ethical. Therefore, approaching others with a helping hand when they mess up is truly an act that encapsulates more than anything else what we are all about.
15. If this does not resolve the problem in your opinion, then please report it to a commissioner/leader. If you have any evidence (e.g. in-game screenshot, or chat log), then please share that as well. If possible, kindly inform the other party that you have taken this step.
16. That commissioner will then evaluate the report and the evidence and take appropriate action. Normally, this will happen by having a chat with all parties, elicit any additional information from all sides, and putting it up for discussion in the commissioner forum. In the rare case that for some reason the issue is sensitive to any other commissioner/leader, the discussion can be held over private discord group chat.
17. During the process, every reasonable effort should be made to ensure that everyone involved can participate in the conversation. At minimum, this means allowing all parties to provide their views and their input on any important points of the discussion throughout the process, and fully informing all parties of the final outcome and the reasoning behind it.
18. To ensure clear communication, under no circumstances should you block a commissioner/leader.