IRC?
It's much like EVE, but without the bugs. 
But seriously, I hear Modded Versions of Freelancer are making a resurgence.
They are. However it's still Freelancer 1 - it's an old engine, old game and it's not getting any newer. I have heard rumors that FL2 is in the works or final planned stages or whatever but can't find any info regarding this. There is also Jump Gate Evolution but iirc it's still in development hell
EVE is a brilliant game, but what I've wanted for YEARS now is a new and fresh twitch shooter in space ala Freelancer. JGE has been my biggest option so far but alas...
Black Prophesy... I saw bits and pieces of news of this some time ago, watched a few movies etc. They seem to have been in deveopment for some time, mostly in obscurity, but are becoming more known in recent times. The game never impressed me much, tbh. BP and Infinity seem to have the same old problem - fixed weapons leading to missile-spam or endlessly looping dog-fights between human players. Boring. Freelancer was a breath of fresh air as you had movable turrets and alot more freedom in making hits on foes without having to align your entire ship to be lined up with the enemy and then fire. JGE seems to have this feature too - movable weapons.
IF ever EVE died for good (I consider this highly unlikely in any case but a disaster striking CCP) I'd go look over whatever MMO was around at the time. If EVE died tomorrow I'd be hard pressed to find another MMO - might simply shelve MMO's until a worthy one poped up.
As for keeping backstage around... good idea. But maintaining this place as simply a meeting-point for gamers around the world who likes to RP won't mean we will all agree on any good MMO to join or even what MMO is good or even any specific faction. But then, that's a good thing, right? I mean, if we all played JGE and everyone joined the Octavian Empire we would be a massive force, but who would we fight? I think we would run out of targets soon
