There used to be a general server activity tracker which tracked all players as well as the official (and requested) factions. You used to be able to use that by searching for your tagged ships and totalling it up.
This disappeared with the new forum and the tracker format that came with it, don't know of any plans to re-instate it.
That's a shame, I'd like to be able to track ships in my unofficial factions as we used to. I'd support bringing about some sort of change if it were possible.
I think that an unofficial activity tracker it may be useful but I guess that could influence somehow the appearance of new problems, such as increased lag... I don't know. I'm not an expert.