How to make official factions better?

[gafiaiiu]

One of the main problems that I have always had with factions is the need to post in a message dump rather frequently to ever get anywhere.
This has always caused me a lot of trouble because, one, I have a slow upload speed, and interlocked with that, two, I don't want to spend up to two hours writing a report of what I did ingame, and would prefer spending that time y'know, ingame and stuff. Also, is that not everyone is all that capable of producing stories, as they have difficulty controlling a whole setting and not just their character alone.
Also, one of the major reasons I see that cause people not to want to join factions is the loss of freedom associated with it, more so in lower ranks, which are the only ones you can generally gain in any reasonable length of time. Edit: After all, freedom is something people like alot, and you need to find a way to give that to people who are lower ranked in factions, while still making it appear that those whom are independant arn't loosing too much of it.