I don't mind 'em. They're harmless, even if a tad annoying at times. I kind of like the humanitarian slant they take though. It's better than moar grimdark.
I will give you grimdark.
Ston and his men (alts whatever) are nothing but one thing: Attention
whores seekers. Presenting - the Universe of EVE. Grim, dark, cruel. No-one gives a shit and if your in the way of the profit or standings of a Capsuleer: cue air-lock sound provided by you-know-whom above.
Enter - Ston and his brave men. They will pick up this can of slaves, slavers or whatever. And they will talk about it, post about it, and hang you out in public about it.
Because they care. They care so very, very much. They care so much in fact, they will happily undock an unarmed ship with no options of escape prepared right into a waiting enemy death cultist and feed all lives aboard to this enemy. Then they will post about it some more, to let the universe of cruel, dark and grim patron demi-gods know how much the Stonites care, how evil their enemies are, and how righteous and kind the Stonites are - they will even get their charges killed on purpose for your daily dose of drama,
fancy that!Oh and yeah, they will post a full new tread to 'protest' the loss of their ships, as opposed to finding means to avoid the enemy, or fighting back, or anything intelligent like that.At least until CCP slap them for constant violations and they understand where the line goes.
And they will also get involved in any matter that don't concern them and offer their input on anything they don't approve of (translation: practically everything Capsuleers do) and more so: one of the most recent ones was an offer of asylum to Tibus Heth. Because really, fuck the State and who cares what the man has done? The Stonites are the good-guys here and they oppose the death penalty.
Except ofc when it's convenient to send their crews and rescued slaves out single file to be killed one by one by death cultists. Ooooops.
TL:DR: As far as I am concerned the stonites are nothing but a super-hypocritical annoyance both IC and OOC. They float their boat however they like and all that, but I don't like to sugar-coat my opinions of people like this, even if this post is about as calm and mild as I can state my views about them. Likely going to end in the catacombs soon enough, perhaps.
In case you missed it Anslo, the grimdark I'm serving you here is the realization that however you look at it, the actions of the Stonites prove they seek only one thing.
It is not to protect human life or dignity, in case you missed my above post.
*EDIT* BTW, I do have a plan for interacting with them on a more ideologically challenged level, but doing anything, as usual, requires playing the game. I'll get around to it at some point, eventually...