There I said it, I'm all for cooperation in things make no mistake and its really fun speaking to other factions, testing loyalties, seeing where the lore is setting up conflict then forming alliances as issues are raised. But forming them before we even know what's going and before the campaign starts is dumb. Obviously CB will ignore that when they publish the results if for example a nomad and yujing force hold an area the lore will reflect the winner, which to me makes it even weirder that folks are in these things What's your opinion pro or against?
For me they are fine as they are based either on fluff based alliances or alliances based on previous campaigns, now if these will hold is another subject altogether.
At this point in time, the Online Campaigns have a long running player driven narrative of characters, people, and stories that are intertwined in a way that CB could not possibly encapsulate in their lore. There are entire events and narratives that were done by the players that never see a word in a lore book. There is the CB lore and narrative that is happening, and then the players, and this was realized back in Asteroid Blues and so during Asteroid Blues and since, the players just ran with it. Even between campaigns there is some lite hearted roleplaying and teasing between the factions and the usual faction leaderships. As such even though a campaign is not announced, alliance are already formed. They do change now and then, but some (like Haqq-Nomads-Tohaa) have run for multiple campaigns and the players just expect it to happen. This is a symptom of the players themselves wanting to continue narratives and friendships. I dont see this as an issue, as the people who take part in the campaigns are actually a very small amount in the grand scheme of things, its a small community who recognizes how the campaigns work and looks forward to them every year. This meme was made back in Asteroid Blues when the players decided to throw the CB narrative away and just forge their own:
Jokes aside, fax is a great solution, compared to mail, in some applications. You do get - immediately - a confirmation whether it was received, or not received. With e-mail, the message might be delivered in seconds - or get lost en route. In some cases, you'll receive a message your mail couldn't be delivered... but sometimes this may come up to 48h after you've sent it.
Real actual time? Yes. Try to dismiss your telcom and you'll find out... We can go wireless ANYWHERE but if you want to disconnect your landline you need a fax-machine. And it's not even statal-related!
I can see that even if the FAX has been discontinued as a protocol, the bureaucracy to remove the reference from the documents has not reach the stamp level yet. Alternatively, it may be a change of the use of the word to refer to a similar but modernized process. or they are still a thing in the far future.
200 yrs in the future - we have electronic fingerprints already, digi signatur etc Fax is out, even on Dawn