Hi Commander Tandrias.
My player faction is called The Alliance Rapid-Reaction Force.
I normally post a full, pre-prepared spiel here telling you all about us and asking you to join, but I don't feel it's appropriate for this occasion.
Instead I'm going to try to explain the phenomenon you are experiencing and why.
The lack of players in open is mostly due to the undue fear of being "ganked" by other players. However this only really happens in popular locations such as Community Goals and Engineer sites, etc..
Players avoid these problems by playing in Private gropups such as Mobius or Solo mode. Hence the lack of players in Open most of the time.
That's the in game reason for the lack of players.
So What's happening in Discord?
Our experience is that more than 70% of people that join us only play a few hours per month. Or else will play solidly for a couple of months, then disappear for several weeks.
Of the 30% that are more active, 50% of them really don't like to interact with the others much, and will really only support the group in lone wolf fashion. This doesn't mean they aren't active. Just not talking much.
Of those that are left. Most will be happy to chatter but not wing up. I really don't know why. This leaves the appearance that there's only a small number of active commanders even though there's actually more.
What you can do to find others to wing up is to fly in open whenever you can. It sounds dangerous, and it is. However, you will meet others in Open and 99% of the Elite galaxy is perfectly safe. In general, if you meet another commander that is doing the same thing you are, they will be hapy to wing up with you.
When you see another hollow square in SC take the initiative. Send them an o7. Start a dialogue and see if you can make a friend.
If you want to find groups that are very active, look into groups like SAP Core, The Alliance Office of Statistics. The SPEAR Network, The East India Trading Company, The Fuel Rats, The Tionisla Historical Society. I could go on forever.
If you want to find active commanders then stop hiding in solo and go out there and meet them. Just remember, Space is big. I mean really big. There's such a lot of it you just don't have the imagination to grasp the enormity of it. Even if all the commanders were online at the same time, you would be hard pressed to bump into more than a couple in a week. Unless you find a place where a lot of commanders are active.
Catch 22?
Much!
o7
O7 
