Yeah--anything along that line. The "server" provides the guidelines for rank, penalties for crimes, etc.
I think the admins wouldn't want to be tinkering all the time with it but you could have the admins institute the equivalent of a constitutional convention where players voted on standing and pending regulations for their factions.
I watched my friends play D&D when it first started and noticed there were those who liked having a puzzle, with structure and order to put together and some who simply liked to use the game as a chance to have everyone hear their story.
If you want to tell stories as the primary goal, no one is going to ever be able to sort out the play. The structure makes everyone part of the same story.
Making new "rules" faction by faction, person by person isn't useful structure for the majority--that's structure that has overtaken purpose.
We just need a fixed foundation everyone builds from.
Just a little more is needed here.
<span style="font-family:System">Hogosha Exile</span> The Journal of Benjo Dokosai