As one of those numbered friends I can confirm this happened - I was the person who was harassed with Cruise Disruptors and eventually attacked for flying a Junker CSV - despite the fact that I had enough faction to purchase the thing from the Junker Base, so the NPCs clearly didn't have anything wrong with it. I spoke with him IC first, then OORP while trying to get away from Captain Cruise Disruptor and was eventually rewarded with seeing how many nice pieces my new ship full of cargo made when he blew it up.
I've also ran into some really massive aggravation on the fault of the Libery Police, some of my friends more than others, whereas I have encountered "you're a pirate, BOOOOM, laugh about it in System" from the =LSF=. While I understood going Pirate was a KoS type tag, I wasn't aware I would get taunted afterwords instead of getting some engaging, interesting roleplay for it. I mean, I'm in an executioner popping NPCs to help a friend get Rogue faction and suddenly I'm beset by three Gunboats and not a single word of "stop" or any roleplay that would have amused me and made me more than happy to accept my fate there, just a rain of laser fire. I've honestly yet to see anyone Roleplay with a pirate who is not bigger than them.
Laser fire does not = RP.
Then we have rather arbitrary restrictions on the way pirates do business and what weapons we can carry, what ships we can fly - we're PIRATES, we shouldn't really need a pass to say that we stole a ship, it's kinda what we do. Or then again, on this server, it's not. The Pirate rules on how to handle traders force us into saying "2mil or dai" as the plague has been known, whereas the entire server has free reign to blast us into oblivion with zero RP?
Do. Not. Want.
The player factions in their entirety seem to be more focused on consolidating their power and hoarding their systems than actual RP - Even if there is RP on the forums or not, that's what I see in game. Especially the Player Navies and Player Police are very concerned with "who owns what Capital ship" and "who has my permission to be in System X" This is the sort of thing I think of a political dictator doing, only this time they're aligned with someone who can remove you from the planet (server). I think there would be less power inherient in many player factions if the Admins didn't run these large, overbearing, powergaming factions who try to consume independant players and remove rights.
Even if it doesn't exist, there's a clear reason for people to see a conflict of interest. In fact, this server seems very much intent on maintaining a status quo where certain people have power, making it very hostile to new players.
And that is why I and my friends who came along with Hatred felt the need to go elsewhere. And I do not think we were the first who were disgusted in this vein, and if things do not change, I do not think we will be the last.
