To see the state of HiSec mining myself, last year, I loaded up a porpoise and offered folks free mining boosts. The vast majority of players simply didn’t respond. Only when I landed in belt, did about 10% respond in local. About 45% warped off to a different belt – what, did they seriously think I was going to gank them in a porpoise? Yes, they were that scared. No talking, just them silently leaving me like I was a leper. The other 45% continued to sit in my boosting range, but not getting boosts, unresponsive.
The first day, I actually got 4 strangers in fleet mining together. We talked, we chatted, way more interaction than before. I still talk to 1 of them irregularly.
However, the next 2 days, no one wanted to join. That was pretty frustrating to see. I gave up after that and decided to do more fun things.