This will be my last post on this thread--I got my answer already.
An admin response isn't really needed (by me) at this point.
I just want to point something out to you all.
The Freelancer community is shrinking (mainly due to the loss of the list server and I am sure collapse of TLR too).
The reason Discovery has so many players is because there was a core community here (and we are seeing one half of that core in some of these responses) that kept the numbers up even as other servers were losing members as people couldn't find them or didn't know of them.
The hard work of the modder here is the greatest contributing factor--Igiss made a stable, balanced, well thought out mod. Many mods don't come close.
Most people don't want to play on an empty or short server. So they scan the list server (or the workaround equivalent) and go to the one with the most players (ping allowing).
You old hands that are so sure that the 'your way or the highway concept' is the great way might not realize you are doing the same thing AOL did--generating 'churn'. You get floods of new people and you churn out a lot of them even as you get them.
I have noted the players who came in and then left and while part of that is inevitable, part of it is avoidable. There aren't so many new players coming into Freelancer now, that you can blow them off by the dozens over and over.
Well actually, that's wrong--you can. What you will end up with--gradually, over time--is a small community of faction participants who are invested and no one else. Won't happen overnight, but it will happen.
The servers that are gone or are ghosts now didn't suddenly "suck overnight" and lose all their people. There simply aren't enough players now to fill the servers.
There is a 'ghost server' now that at one time was the highest traffic one. Same thing happened to it. The "old crews" formed big clans and claimed ownership.
My reasons for stirring this up were not to point fingers and hurl insults.
Its concern for the future of this server. of course, the smug will say, "We'll always be here--we don't need those other people."
Seen it all before guys--nothing new under the sun.
Sadly, its just an ego-pissing match with most of the 'great debaters on here'--the point is usually completely not gotten by most of the peanut gallery.
So you can come back with all the personal stuff you want--my concern is that the server stays strong and keeps going--not just that your factions do.
Kudos to Jinx who almost without exception keeps a balanced view and even more importantly will speak up when all the other old crew are towing a party line.
So I'm gonna play and we'll see what happens. Hope it works out.
<span style="font-family:System">Hogosha Exile</span> The Journal of Benjo Dokosai
