Don't get it wrong. There are rules. I don't tolerate non-rp threats, personal attacks, racial and sexual remarks in any chat. And will perma ban those who do it. I come down on swearing with a warning, then a fine or two then ban if needed.
I don't allow pirates to tax oiutrageous amounts (anything more than 1000 credits per cargo space (whether it's being used for equipment or not) is out of line on Freeplay. I also don't allow people to unlawfully pirate in anything larger than a gunboat, although I do allow interdiction of GC stated or official clan stated contraband in any size vessel.
I just don't enforce most of the RP rules.
The rules for official clans, system ownership and system battles are quite involved. I also don't allow people to place base weapons platforms closer than 10k to a NPC dockable object and then set the base to kill all non-allied ships.
It's meant to be a lot of fun without a lot of rules. But unfortunately, there do have to be some rules.