According to the official statistics released this week by CCP Diagoras, the volume of ore mined in highsec has dropped by a staggering 45.53%. Nearly half of all highsec mining has been wiped out, thanks to coordinated anti-highsec mining operations (most prominently Hulkageddon V), and the extraordinary shift in public opinion about highsec mining. You can read CCP Diagoras' tweet here.

If we were to believe the conventional wisdom among the carebears and the pseudointellectuals of Market Discussions, highsec mining is too vast and pervasive to stop. Prior to the latest round of Hulkageddon, they confidently predicted that gankers wouldn't put a dent in the amount of mining. They were wrong.

Miners have been slaughtered by the thousands, but that's not all. Anti-mining operations are primarily instruments of terror. While thousands of miners died, more importantly, thousands more miners have given up mining. Ordinarily we wouldn't be able to quantify the effect of the latter, and the carebear apologists would be free, in their ignorance, to keep crowing about the absence of any impact. But thanks to CCP Diagoras, we can make our enemies eat crow instead.

I know there are some skeptics who will grasp to the straws of any alternate explanation, so I'll provide a preemptive debunking service here. The mining of ore in highsec did not decline during the measured period due to a drop in botting. Over the relevant period, there was no mass-banning of bots by CCP. Quite the opposite, in fact. My own observations, corroborated by the dedicated bot-watchers in Crime & Punishment, have actually seen a proportionate increase in botting of late; a new network of easily-identified botters is crawling over the belts in highsec as we speak.

What's happened is that the human miners, unlike the bots, became aware of Hulkageddon and have ceased mining. When humans abandoned the belts, the bots became a larger percentage of those left behind, and they stand out more. For example, a new type of ice-mining bot, very common today, flocks in the ice fields. They use an identical ship name scheme (a space before the ship name, easy to spot groups of them using your D-scanner), and they warp out one-by-one if you lock them. I have cleared out entire ice fields with a frigate just by locking up the bots, because there are no humans left mining there.

The drop in mining has been disproportionately--perhaps entirely--caused by a decline in the number of human miners, not bots. Thus, the decrease in mining among humans in highsec is greater than 45.53%. We don't have official statistics on what percentage of the total mining in highsec is done by bots, but by all accounts it's a hefty amount. Therefore, this is the bottom line:

The majority of human highsec miners have quit mining.

Two weeks ago, I wrote a Manifesto II in which I called upon the people of EVE to put a stop to all mining in highsec. Most people probably thought it was crazy to even consider such a thing possible. Not anymore. We're already more than halfway there!

Granted, some miners will return to the belts once Hulkageddon ends. But many will not. Having been forced to adapt and try out other professions, and having found them more rewarding, they will leave mining for good. As the miners' numbers diminish, so does their power and influence over CCP.

As for the gankers, their numbers are growing rapidly. Each day, more and more pilots are getting hooked on ganking. They see the miners for what they are: targets. And they will prey upon an ever-decreasing number of carebears.

In light of these facts, we must now realize that the extinction of highsec mining is not just an impossible dream anymore. It's something that we, as the EVE community, can realistically accomplish together. If you have not yet committed to the fight against the carebears, then I encourage you to join us now. This is your chance. Kill some highsec miners before they're all gone!

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