If there's no one to dictate in rough lines what road of rp should be followed you'll get so much chaos that it will become a server issue.
Challenging official factions to take over their spot would be a good thing yeah,
but on what criteria? and would this mean retconning everything the previous faction did?
I believe Ursus raised a interesting thing about the difference between clans and factions.
many problems we see today arise from clan behaviour.
Groups of new people just look at the ID's and the ships , choose what they think is the most powerful combination, and go into combat with that , totally unaware of the ID lore and whatever , barely able to realise what the enemies are by checking the ingame repsheet.
once they get into contact with the official faction of their ID , often there rise a lot of problems because the official faction demands them to adapt to the set lore of the game , while the clan has it's very own ideas on how to play the game , and how or if to roleplay.
The official faction will raise the argument ''we've been here first and we are official so we know better'' while the clan will raise the argument ''but we have more activity ,more members and we have more members/gank better''
then you'll get the classic sausage fight over whose right , a fight that neither parties end victorious.
This almost seems to happen in a loop , over and over again.
My concern is that this is indeed a server issue , because the quality of RP , the amount of fun this game really is , and the overall atmosphere come in second place to these ego wars.
I think new players on this server should feel welcomed, not only by a ''welcome'' message on the forum , but they should be embraced by the rest of the community and the officials , and treated equal.
People that know me know that I can get really pissed off when people treat less experienced players as less important or even less respectful.
In return new players have to understand that they have to adapt to the ones that went before them onto a certain extend.
This is where official factions play a vital role, and should display a vital service to the community.