Very much this - thanks Red.
Yes, we don't run a fleet at all, because it's not in our interests to do so - although very often we get informal fleets form for situational reasons. A large proportion of the people that have joined have done so because joining us doesn't mean tied to a single playstyle or activity - it's all choice.
What I would say is that I don't believe it's anyone's interest to go in and fight the griefers. They will keep respawning and respawning and getting a kick out of killing explorers until the explorers stop fighting.
And encouraging them does not help the tens/hundreds of other CMDRs who gave been happily flying around in the Pleiades, minding their own business, and up till now enjoying their contact with the other CMDRs they find there.
Personally, I think it's a sad misuse of an RP angle on their part - 'inviting' CMDRs to stop the search in the interests of himan safety and all that (ie fear of the aliens) and then entering into combat if the CMDR refuses would have made more sense. Just turning up and blowing anyone out of the sky is pretty low, and we only validate them by winging up and throwing ourselves into the breach.
I will use solo/PG to sidestep them.
I will also do my best to get CMDR Canonn up and running again soon so that we can have a Canonn-only private group.
I'm on 3g for most of today, though, so downloading the game to my laptop is off the cards.
