Should official factions have more power?

[sovereign]

Before I answer the question posed by the poll, I'd like to go over what factions have currently.

I am aware that they get the following:

• A spot in the Faction Status Thread saying what they do
  
• A thread in the faction feedback forum
  
• A thread in the Message Dumps section, as opposed to the general section
  
• A thread in the faction recruitment forum
  
• The capacity to purchase a system, request very specific and mostly cosmetic changes to it, but by no means restrict it or its contents except in some vaguely defined cases (how much of this is rule and how much will just get you flamed massively is a different question altogether)
  
• The continual scrutiny of the playerbase, and massive flaming if they do "bad" things (which, at least in my experience, do not normally receive such treatment when done by "ordinary" players)
  
• Respect from some other official factions and some players- for what that's worth, see below
  

That's all that comes to mind.

From previous sanctions and rulings, I have gathered that factions cannot determine or adjust policy in light of a changing environment, exert authority over troublemakers (while some cases are debatable, there are a few that could have been solved with far less hard feelings if factions had any authority) or even exert authority over people whose actions reflect on their own reputations (see the Liberty Navy at any point in the past year). In addition, they cannot claim any actions of theirs as "canon", nor influence the development process in any direct fashion (while a faction requesting a ship may end up with a dev making a ship with them in mind, they cannot ask for a ship and have someone tasked to make it).

In exchange for the (fairly limited all things considered, in my opinion) rights above, official factions have the following responsibilities:

• To inform people that they have scolded their members in the event of sanctions and such... but not to necessarily do anything about it with repeat offenders or the like (I could name examples but that would be bad form)
  
• To sit pretty and play nice for everyone else on pain of flaming and sanctions, regardless of how nicely (or not) people play with them and/or whether or not people are demolishing their reputation
  
• As of a year or two ago, to pay 500 million credits as a down payment for aforementioned system or (apparently) a Barge
  
• To maintain numbers, as well as an up to date diplomacy list (but only sometimes)
  

My facts are getting muddled with my impressions, which I'm sure are becoming clear.

I cannot accurately vote on whether or not official factions should have more power until all of their privileges and responsibilities until they are codified. In addition to an official, admin-endorsed listing of what Official Factions can do, can't do, and must do, I'd like to make sure that the entire admin team is either in agreement or at least aware of it. For any of you who remember when Igiss (briefly) doubted the authority of the Faction Status Thread and a green stamp in the Faction Creation Requests forum as a means of determining whether or not a faction was official, I'm sure you will agree that there needs to be full communication here (and there are plenty of touchier examples that I will not go into here). As a last thing, I'd like to have "strong suggestions" (i.e. things you are expected to do but can waive as necessary) listed and some sort of guarantee that out-of-character attacks on actions listed in aforementioned decree as "can do" will be dealt with until they stop. I personally do not plan on placing restrictions or anything like that on Bundschuh players (not that there are any to oppress if I did) but I've seen the psychological effects of people being torn down for trying to do what they thought was their responsibility. It really isn't a pretty thing.

Thank you for reading, and my apologies for getting opinionated a bit earlier than I had intended.

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