I've played the game for nearly a year now and I spent all of that in solo or in a private group with friends, mainly through fear of being blown up. Well I got bored one day, I mean real bored because I reset my save data and decided to play entirely in open from then on. That lasted three hours, and in that three hours I experienced three big things.
1. A player deliberately blocking the only medium landing pad at Sothis Mining, forcing me to switch to solo.
2. An ex-player faction member boasting about killing un-armed rank grinding vessels.
3. An unshielded Diamondback griefer attempting to interdict me. (Number 2 and 3 are the same person).
It wasn't until this that I realized that I wanted the experience of talking and interacting with other commanders but hated the thought of being needlessly blown up. So here I am with Mobius, I really hope this is what I am looking for.