This account, along with many others, is registered as the owner of an in-game faction, in this case Alliance Office of Statistics.
Give these factions, specifically the forum account that "owns" the faction, the ability to post local GalNet articles to all systems that the faction has a presence in (and leave them in that system if they're pushed out later) via their forum accounts. Could be a subforum where everyone can read but only these account can post new threads, with each thread starting post being the GalNet article.
This will allow each of the thousands of player factions currently in game to write their own story line into the game. This will make each faction more visible, and when factions occupy the same systems it allows for "journalistic trash talk" or propaganda to help explain why thy are at odds with each other. This will help make the factions feel that their actions actually matter in the universe, even if it's not on a galactic scale.
Obviously this needs to be subject to controls and strict limits on what's allowed. For one thing it needs to be possible to report entries for review in-game. No unneeded profanity, no dictating what any characters outside of your own faction does, but of course allowed to report their actions and your faction's responses to them; e.g. "The President of the Alliance Office of Statistics has asked Alliance Prime Minister Edmund Mahon for assistance in fighting off a famine" is fine as it doesn't dictate any actions for a major character, but "Alliance Prime Minister Edmund Mahon has authorised assistance to the Alliance Office of Statistics to help them fight off a famine" isn't as it dictates what a major character does.
Articles should also be subject to random review by FDev to ensure that their rules aren't being broken, and when they are broken the article should be revoked with a message explaining why it's been revoked. Multiple revoked articles should result in a temporary ban in posting articles, while major infractions could result in a permanent ban for that faction (within reason, obviously). I hope the threat of losing your voice and ability to have a living, breathing and "talking" faction in game is enough of a threat to keep the serious writers in check, and if trolls start abusing the articles it's an indication that the criteria for creating a player faction in game should be improved.
This is, of course, just my first draft of this idea so to speak, and I welcome suggestions for improvement.
Give these factions, specifically the forum account that "owns" the faction, the ability to post local GalNet articles to all systems that the faction has a presence in (and leave them in that system if they're pushed out later) via their forum accounts. Could be a subforum where everyone can read but only these account can post new threads, with each thread starting post being the GalNet article.
This will allow each of the thousands of player factions currently in game to write their own story line into the game. This will make each faction more visible, and when factions occupy the same systems it allows for "journalistic trash talk" or propaganda to help explain why thy are at odds with each other. This will help make the factions feel that their actions actually matter in the universe, even if it's not on a galactic scale.
Obviously this needs to be subject to controls and strict limits on what's allowed. For one thing it needs to be possible to report entries for review in-game. No unneeded profanity, no dictating what any characters outside of your own faction does, but of course allowed to report their actions and your faction's responses to them; e.g. "The President of the Alliance Office of Statistics has asked Alliance Prime Minister Edmund Mahon for assistance in fighting off a famine" is fine as it doesn't dictate any actions for a major character, but "Alliance Prime Minister Edmund Mahon has authorised assistance to the Alliance Office of Statistics to help them fight off a famine" isn't as it dictates what a major character does.
Articles should also be subject to random review by FDev to ensure that their rules aren't being broken, and when they are broken the article should be revoked with a message explaining why it's been revoked. Multiple revoked articles should result in a temporary ban in posting articles, while major infractions could result in a permanent ban for that faction (within reason, obviously). I hope the threat of losing your voice and ability to have a living, breathing and "talking" faction in game is enough of a threat to keep the serious writers in check, and if trolls start abusing the articles it's an indication that the criteria for creating a player faction in game should be improved.
This is, of course, just my first draft of this idea so to speak, and I welcome suggestions for improvement.
