So what exactly is Ring mining? and while i think OP's idea for creating shifting environment in nullsec to prevent stagnation won't work, i think the concept of something to prevent stagnation is a good idea.

something needs to keep huge regions of nullsec from becoming huge mutually blue blocks

While this is true, nothing creates the sort of social dynamics that break up powerblocs and encourage bad feelings like how to divide up valuble resources - just think PL's "for funsies" fights over prom/dyspro with the old NC that basically fomented a permanent split. There was also severe tensions in the NC over tech distribution - you can point to Goonswarm's hatred of Stella Polaris that started over a dispute over a tech moon.

You can't rely on people just hating people for no reason, you've got to ferment the hatred.

But moons are the only real conflict driver left in 0.0 (everyone is too rich to care about trusec, mining, or rat type) and so you need to make sure the system works and works well before you rip out moons.

Also wow we've gone two pages talking about a fairly controversial topic and the discussion is still really good. I'm impressed, let's keep this conversation going.

Yes. Unlimited pockets = bad. More importantly, are you THINKING about removing all moon goo income with Ring mining or just reducing it? I think the economy of moon goo will become bad quickly when you consider the cost of running a moon vs profits and it will probably die off in the face of ring mining. just throwing that out there. I'd be totally cool with removing almost all moon goo to ring mining. But I guess that's a tough answer from an economic stand point.

I really liked the idea of POCOs being the conflict drivers, but unfortunately they are a bit too distributed. Their hitpoints are too high to have a small gang come through and mess with them, and nobody likes repping that much armor/shields either. They are poor substitute to having moons to fight over.

I like the idea of resources moving about to a certain degree, but it cannot be via moons (which take forever to scan), or pocos (which are designed with being 'static' in mind!), or truesec, cause who cares now. I thought maybe ring mining might be some sort of solution for that, but that will just get the industrialists happy.

Allowing stations to be destroyed though? That might drive some conflict. Who needs more of a reason to attack someone else more than 'We will burn down your entire territory.'

You'd better make this ring mining the single most exciting thing to do in EvE, else it will kill off nullsec. As it stands, moon mining pays for space that alliances hold. It frees the members to log in and do what they want. Shackles etc. Granted tech lets stuff like burn jita and hulkageddon happen at zero cost to the aggressors, but that's not the point.

If you change that to: 'Mine X hours per member to keep your space'.. well it won't end well. (either they stop logging in, or sreegs gets to go on an all new bot banning rampage)