When you have to get through a high volume of low-skill players, the most efficient way to do so is by killing as quickly as possible with instakills or high volumes of fire to reduce the numbers, or at least keep them the same as hostile reinforcements zeroing in on your location.
Its a problem, yes, but I'd argue that it is not entirely our fault. There is no such thing as a non-combattant to the Phantoms. We do kill innocents. The problem comes when you have a swarm around you, some of which are firing and some of which are not. Its very hard to accurately distinguish between the two in half a second, and if they are firing already, then you can assume that they are fair game to be destroyed without opening a chat with them. Besides, if you are already being shot by other people in fighters, bombers or whatever, its pretty hard to type in combat without losing a significant amount of hull.
That said, it is a valid concern and will be taken into serious consideration if what you say is accurate. However, from experience, people tend to shoot at us if others are already shooting at us, so even not being there, I'd wager that most of them were firing. Those that werent should have moved away as quickly as possible or simply docked. After all, Pittsburg was just over there.
