I’ve done the SOE Epic Arc at least five times as a beginner. After the first one (which was a mess of course) I started explaining to people who commented in local how to take out the Drone Queen, Dagan, and the guy before Dagan (forgot his name) with the appropriate beginner ships (T1/T1 destroyers? It’s been a while 
All three must have been designed (long ago) by someone smart, who wanted to teach tactics and ship fitting.
Some people want to be boosted rather than listen. But surprisingly many (at least 50%) are very happy when they find that a DPS-tuned ship and the right kind of tank or avoidance technique let them solo him. Nobody is unhappy to learn stuff like that, and then find it actually works.
This is a (rare) example of a context where there can be a natural, safe (because it’s only information) social interaction with a good chance of continued contact.
EVE could have a lot of opportunities for simple safe interactions between beginners, and between beginners and experienced players. Or more interestingly difficult scenarios could be created and documented properly so they provided useful instruction.
Not quite as easy to do it with PvP combat, but the OPs suggestion (plus the tuning along the way) would provide an excellent framework. It must be possible to construct useful PvP combat scenarios.
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PS: Boosting any of the harder SOE scenarios isn’t going to motivate a player to stay with EVE, nor teach them anything. All it does is make the booster imagine they’ve done something useful.