Fact is that 70% of factions are on the life support with few people trying to keep them alive for sake of keeping it alive. No purpose can be seen so far. Hope for the best future maybe? But new players are just forming own unofficial factions and formations with own rules, ranks, story or whatever they want because there is no difference. Or not forming factions at all. Indy for the win. Someone wanted that so hard and he's not around to see the spoils of all the fails.
Also mind that "active players" = "active unique players" so the problem might be in determining where are twinks and where are unique players between all the ships logging. Flying shared ships helps a little.
