Ignoring Ingenious because honestly his suggestions are well...I can't say it because it is insulting.
Athenian mentioned that many unofficial factions have been clever in having their own message dump, ones that the admins and moderators have allowed. I think that the same could be allowed for unofficial factions, though keep all of it within role play (official factions sometimes have ooRP recruitment threads).
Have a bar in the watering hole area or a story in the Story and Bio section. It would be a great way to display their role play abilities.