I read the whole thread carefully because there is so much useful info in here (at least, for a newbie). So what would you recommend for a solo miner like myself? I don’t mine for profit - as @Xeux said “players have brought the cost of minerals down to the point that it is completely pointless to bother with mining” - but rather for ‘insurance’ to be able to replace my lost ships. Would a cloak on my Venture help?
P.S. To be fair, no one bothered to gank my Venture so far - just once a ganker corp scared me off so I wouldn’t mine in their system 
Later they gave advices and some isk for upgrades Ah, adventures like these makes the Eve experience incredible - a true Scifi story 
That
Like, not undocking, or sitting cloaked in a T3? 
C’mon, it’s EVE - you yourself said it’s balanced towards asymmetry
I remember, your Nerf Ganking Megathread was one of the first things I read and memorized when I started my journey in the Eden - thank you very much for it!
One of the points I would suggesting adding to the list from my experience - trying to talk to guys before anything and asking if it’s ok to mine here (while keeping all safety checks, of course). More often than not the ‘bad’ guys are real nice people. Otherwise, talking after loosing your ship could be very useful and informative too. I only once met a person who ganked me and blocked communications instantly. So all in all, socializing might be not only ‘life saver’ but it’s also a very pleasing activity in Eve 