I think the sportsmanlike subset of the playerbase will always support an "Open play" approach to Powerplay. During the time I was participating in Powerplay, I Powerplayed in Open. I scarcely ever saw a commander, though I didn't exactly go out hunting them or attracting attention to myself either. I spent an awful lot of time over many months in Archon territory back in the day, and only ever saw noobs flying their colors - yet they claim to always fly in Open. Heck, I even have a video on my YouTube channel that I took as a public apology to a poor Archon noob in an Asp that I couldn't bear killing again. Now, let me be clear that I don't doubt they Archon community did/do fly in Open. Timezones, instancing, and sheer bad luck are all sufficient reasons to me as to why I scarcely saw them. As someone who almost exclusively fortified / prepped since those "good old days," I never had a single enemy so much as attempt to interdict me. If I did, it wasn't memorable...As I said, I think every sportsmanlike subset of the playerbase (regardless of allegiance) will always support "Open play," but I am very disappointed when commanders instantly assume that because they did not see the opposition or undermining take place while they were sitting in the system, that the other sidehave been in Solo or Private. I'm sick of seeing the "you're in private!" "you're in solo" mudslinging on Reddit - ESPECIALLY when they are my friends slinging the mud (and I've expressed my disapproval to some of these commanders as recently as yesterday). I do not frequent the Frontier Forums, but I imagine that mudslinging is here too. That needs to stop. The more negativity that surrounds Powerplay, the fewer people will actually participate.However, it should be taken into account that there are currently some significant flies in the ointment in making Powerplay a 100% from end to end Open-play experience.One particularly annoying fly was reported in this bug thread:Note the thread above was started on 18/07/2016. There is still no fix. Anyone hostile with the Federation who has the audacity to instance with another player at a station is at risk of being destroyed, because the station glitches and becomes Fed-aligned, even in systems where no Fed factions are present. This bug has cost Imperial strategists several snipes over the months, because snipers carrying thousands of merits were arbitrarily destroyed when another commander dropped into their instance at a station. This bug forces people to swap into Solo when they drop into a station's instance, or risk being destroyed and losing their merits. To be clear, this affects people regardless of Powerplay status. If you're hostile with the Federation and you're at a station, you can be destroyed by the station without warning.Here's a great writeup on the bug. - https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteLavigny/comments/5sq35x/psa_combat_pilots_dont_let_the_fedbug_bite/ I've never been bitten by this bug personally (I haven't undermined Feds in about a year and a half and my Fed rep is "Friendly" - plus I find Fed/Imp conflicts a boring cliché), but numerous colleagues have. Before enhancing "Open only" merits, Frontier needs to get this bug sorted.Other than that, I'd fully support the proposed measures for incentivizing Open play in Powerplay.