What if the faction recruitment process was different?

[jammi]

Like, I joined a bunch of different factions (I've also been a horribly inactive member in almost all, so of course it's my responsibility too), and what it basically is is that you get thrown into a skype chat with some people (half of which you are in other skype chats with), you get a rename pass for a ship and a rank, and you log when people say "log log log" and post reports to gain a higher rank. That's ALL there is as a regular faction member in most factions - some (very few) make an effort out of making it an experience for the player to join and try to promote the player to develop his character; but the majority of factions are just clan-like skype chats, but the members still parade the forum as if they have some god-given legitimacy due to their tag and official status. I think the general recruitment process and the pressure to maintain it due to faction activity requirements (as well as parts of the "faction mentality") create barriers for factions.

Honestly, this is a problem with faction leaders and not their recruitment threads. You're looking at a systematic symptom of the attitudes of the people at each faction's helm. Slightly tweaking the format of the standard recruitment thread isn't going to help with that.

Generally speaking it's rare for characters to transfer between factions as well. Presumably because people have invested in developing said character within its original setting, which implies they have a vested interest in keeping it where it is. To further extrapolate on that point, usually if said character is uprooted, it's because the player has been removed from the faction in question, leading to potential discomfort for any faction they then subsequently apply to.

Some people do freely cut and change between factions as their character development requires, but lets not kid ourselves into thinking this is the standard, or even particularly common around here.

If you want to make a non-standard application to a faction, for example by posting a resume type thread or some other contrivance, most factions are open to that if you talk to them beforehand. You say this proposal is about generating fun, but it's not really - only a very small sector of the player population actively find forum based RP/bureaucracy fun. Being able to account for both tastes by enabling people to go as in-depth as they do or don't choose is pretty much essential.