Good points Capt. E.
I'll shy away from the Alliance thing; that's neither here nor there for me to comment on.
Just responding to your questions about the Cartel.
1. If you bring a red faction toon, and start attacking random blues, then you're going to get some action. That is not what we're shooting for here, but we're not going to let you wipe out spawners either.
2. The point of this public Harrower is simple: to encourage people to come out to Fel and see what they're missing. With action in Fel (and Tram as well) slowing down lately, it is entirely in Cartel's best interests to encourage people to come out to Fel. This particular event will not have us as raiders, but if all goes well, I think you will see future events where we will be raiding or spawning a Harrower for mass death. Baja is home to the Cartel, and we aim to do our part to be in the community, not outside it. You won't find us caring about other shards that Cartel are on.
Basically, we're drug dealers and the first time's free, bro. =]
3. Yes, we have gone soft. Our shipment of Viagra went missing.
I'd like to point out that we at Cartel are comfortable enough in our skins to do what amuses us and also serves our goals. If we wanted to spawn with random blues on a whim, we can. If we wanted to go participate in RP events, we can. And if anyone doubts that we're not killing folks anymore, they can pop a spawn anywhere, announce it on Global Chat, and see if we won't come to take it.
I don't think anyone on this shard seriously doubts what the Cartel are and has always been. We're PKs but we're also smart enough to know that it takes a bit of salesmanship to get folks to buy the product these days, and that's what we're doing here.
On a personal note, I'd rather lose a hundred fights in a row than not have any fights at all. Destroying everyone in sight only serves to make this shard quieter and less friendly, and that doesn't do anyone any good, save those who don't want to play the game any longer. It is unfortunate but also true that people don't come out to Fel to have fun anymore and they must be encouraged to see what sort of fun can be had in Fel.
Or would you rather we all just sit around Yew and fight the same 10 faces every day?