I have been wondering about this persistent Discovery issue, and I'd like to illustrate by telling a small story from today:
I'm going to conn on a transport to help transfer an ID to some guy - it's only me and him there - and a fighter undocks and complains no other fighters are present for training. I tell him I will log a fighter for him, and we pew and have fun. Nice person with a positive attitude. A few minutes later I jump on my dread (no one knows that I am the same player) that I just bought new guns for and want to set up in peace in Conneticut. The very instant I undock the same player I just had pews and pleasant convo with for 10-20 minutes calls me a "jerk". Yes, a jerk for doing nothing else but undocking a capital ship in Conneticut. And this isn't a standalone thing, it happens quite frequently when people log a cap in conn, and even on the roleplay part of the server capital ship captains are often treated with disdain and prejudice for doing nothing but piloting a ship they happen to like.*
So my question is: What is it about capital ships that makes otherwise reasonable, nice and pleasant players go completely lolwut just by the very sight of them, and what can we do to get those players back on the right track?
*Ofc some capital ship pilots are arses, just like some bomber/fighter/transport/gb pilots are too, but these are not the ones I am talking about here. I am talking about totally regular and legit roleplayers that happen to pilot a capital ship.