Faction Warfare
Faction Warfare is actually worth it now!
Faction warfare (aka FW) is a low sec warzone in eve that pits the four different NPC empire factions against each other, Gallente vs Caldari and Minmatar vs Amarr. While doing these sites, you get faction rep with the friendlies you fight along side, get Loyalty points (LP) rewards for protecting that side, and can make isk by turning that LP in.
This style of game play involves using (often small) ships to fight each other, usually in small gang style combat. It takes some initial isk to join, but can be quite rewarding experience due to the amount of PVP. It is usually considered better to join a player run corporation that is doing Faction Warfare instead of just the NPC run Faction Warfare Militias.
While your faction status goes up with your chosen ally, your faction status with the your enemies will go down. If it goes below -5.0, the faction NPC police will shoot you. Luckily, they web before they scram, so you can usually dodge them if you're just running away. This can make shopping in Jita challenging, so using a Jita Alt is recommended if going against Caldari due to taxes and risk. Repairing damaged faction takes a VERY long time. Sisters of Eve Epic Arc can help somewhat, but only like a single point.
I have a fully well written guide below by Mr Tingla and Suhupow Billo.
Faction Warfare Guide:
https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=1C0603D77F7A6305!133&ithint=file%2cdocx&authkey=!AKeLWHmC374BpwM - Guide by Mr Tingla and Suhupow Billo
Note: the LP payout for sites in rearguard systems was reduced to 0.01x of the base payout to discourage rearguard LP farming by bots/farmers/newbies.
And an Eve Online Frigates Yearbook 2023 to show the latest meta:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/eve-online-2023-92274894
More details:
https://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Faction_warfare
https://support.eveonline.com/hc/en-us/articles/203209072-Factional-Warfare
Discord link provided by She Who Endures for the Tribal Education Force, which is a minmatar faction militia corporation
https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/17nylck/nullsec_is_dead_havoc_is_out_in_10_days_join/ has more links to discords and such.