New Eden has over 5000 systems, your visibility in EVE consists of whatever you can view on the current grid and whatever you can pick out on directional scan or scan probes. This presents a major problem with getting notifications of hostile movements in the local area. Luckily, the problem was worked around with having “intel channels” where people can report any activity in the area, usually restricted down to a region.

Intelligence channels have become a staple of nullsec life and if you're going to survive for any prolonged period of time undocked understanding them is a must.

A full list of current intel channels can be found on the Chat Channels page.

Intel channels are chatter-free area and they must remain strictly on topic whenever possible. You can be banned from intel channels for excessive off-topic chatter. More-so than nearly anywhere else in TEST, the intel channels are kept very serious.

A successful intel report consists of these simple items:

• Name of the pilot(s).
• Ship type, if possible.
• Location and, if possible, an in system location.

Useful intel reports are the ones that give the maximum amount of information in the shortest nugget of text.

Here is a simple step by step guide:

1. Get the target's names, current system, and if possible ship types. This is usually acquired through your directional scanner, overview, or local chat.
2. Post the information in the intel channel for that region. This is easily done by dragging the names from local chat player name column to your chat window and typing out the ship names.
3. Keep it short and to the point (e.g. Bob 6VDT-H Hound).

If you do not have a visual on the target, suffix your post with “nv” to indicate as such. If you've got a visual on a large fleet, take a screenshot and post that in the channel along with your intel. Your screenshot could give people that vital piece of information to escape or destroy the fleet. Imgur has a nice app called Hyperdesktop that easily allows screenshots of your overview.

You can make a clickable link to a character by dragging their name from your Local chat window's list of people in the system into the text entry area in the intel chat window. You can make a clickable link to a solar system by clicking the bars to the left of the system's name (in the far top-left of your screen) and dragging that into the text entry area in the intel chat window.

By keeping your post to the point and linking the character and systems you'll enable some of TEST's automated tools to use your information for the “greater good”™. Most notable use is the TEST Sentinel.

• “Bob 6VDT-H”
• “Herfet 6VDT-H undocked Sabre”

• “One red in 6v” - Who?
• “20 neuts just jumped in” - Where?
• “I've got eyes on a neut fleet on the gate” - Ship types? Numbers? Where?

Note: “nv” may be used to abbreviate “no visual”

For requesting a status of a system you can easily ask for it with “<System> status?”. You may need this while traveling. For example: D-PNP9 status?

When the reds (or not blues) are gone, you can clear a system with “<System> clr/clear”. For example: D-PNP9 clear

Intel channels are not the most secure thing in the world, as you can expect people can infiltrate a corp with a weak recruitment policy and listen to our intel all day long. So it's with this in mind a simple rule was born: NO REPORTING BLUES

Do not use the intel channels to report blue (friendly) activity of any sort. Reporting blues will only cause problems in the long run.

• What's it do?
  • It relays chat communications from the intel channel(s) to the TEST Intel Map (Sentinel).
• How's it work?
  • It monitors EVE's Chat Log files for specific file names of intel channels and uploads the information to the TEST Intel Map. Everyone is connected to the same chat channels, so only a few people at a time (for redundancy) need to be running this application. Technically it will work with a single person running the tool, but it's obviously not reliable that way.
• What's required?
  • EVE needs to be running, this program installed, running, and logged in via your Auth Services account. Additionally in game settings under the “chat” category, “Log Chat to File” must be checked. During heavy tidi fights you should uncheck this box (potato mode).
• Where do I get it?
  • Here.
• What if I want to help?
  • Development information can be found here.