Explaining the lingo:

I realised whilst writing my last post, that I may be throwing around terms that some readers don't understand (although I would tend to assume that most who read this are already playing eve).

So this is just a very simplistic breakdown of some of the key aspects of eve.

High/Low/Null

In eve, space is made up of individual systems, every system has a security rating, from 1.0 to -1.0.

Space ranked 1.0 to 0.5 space, is called "high sec" space. Here there are very strict rules about who you can shoot, if you shoot someone you're not allowed to, very high powered NPC ships called Concord warp in on you, stop you from warping away and destroy your ship (in the olden days you used to be able to fight back and kill them but this got removed). Certain weapons don't work in high sec and some ships (the capital ships) are not allowed in the space at all.

Space ranked between 0.4 to 0.0 space is called "low sec". The rules about who you can shoot remain, but if you break them there's less consequences. No longer will squadrons of unbeatable ships come in and kill you, if you're at a station or on one of the gates between systems (both of which have guns), they'll shoot you, but it's not (NECESSARILY) the end of the world. Certain weapons don't work in low sec, but capital ships are allowed here.

Space ranked 0.0 to -1 is "null sec", where I live. Here there are no guns on stations or gates, the only thing you have to worry about shooting you is other pilots. Here.. everything works, and many will happily use them against you.

Many who live in null sec look down on high sec as "easy mode", views on low sec differ, personally I hate it, I have had nothing but horrifying, flamey death type experiences there, and I avoid it at almost any cost.

Ships!

There are two distinct categories of ships. First comes subcaps (or sub-capitals), these are the ships most fleets are comprised of, they're the ships you start in, they're MANY of the ships you'll train into over your time in eve. Almost all the ships fit into this category, there's many subcategories (ranging from frigates to battleships) but the one thing all bar one very specific style of subcap have in common, is that they travel from system to system via the defined stargates.

The second category is capitals. These are huge monstrosities, costing billions of isk, they range from the carrier, who spews out armies of drones to defeat his enemies, to the dreadnought, a mobile weapons platform with huge guns (or missiles) it can bring to bear to cause massive amounts of damage, all the way up to the mighty titan. The titan is effectively the "pinnacle"of ships, there is nothing (yet) bigger and badder (but also useful for logistics, as they can open portals, like mini stargates, to send whole fleets to far off places).

There are some other ships which fall under this class, called freighters, which follow the same travel rules as subcaps (gates only) but all other capital ships, are (currently, until the new patch) barred from jumping gates, they're forced to travel by a mechanic called jump drives, these require someone else to be where you want to go, and for them to light a cynosaural beacon, which you then actively "jump" to (think like the jump drive in battlestar galactica), these jumps have range limits, and use fuel, but make capitals exceptionally useful for quick transport around the galaxy. 

People!

The thing that ultimately makes Eve tick. Having all the ships in the world does no good if you have nobody to fly them. There's a very clear structure to people within eve.

Corporations:

Formed of anything from one lone pilot to thousands, most corporations I have experience of are around 50-150 characters. These are the main people you'll mix with on a day to day basis, these are the guys who when you're being jumped, you hope will come to your rescue, or who you may spend the next 6 hours sat next to in an asteroid belt mining. There are corporations of all shapes and sizes, ranging from mining corps to corps for individual languages, whatever your interest in eve, there's probably a corp that will cover it.

Corps are lead by the CEO, but they often have a number of Directors to help, who have slightly reduced (in most cases) powers but still not only have the ability to access the funds and assets of the corp but give direct instructions to line members (or as I call them, grunts)

Alliances:

Formed of multiple corps, again, they can be all shapes and sizes, they're the biggest organization that the game currently mechanically allows. When you own space in null sec, it's owned by the alliance, when you're out on another soul crushing fleet shooting a structure, it's generally for the alliance. There are a few "big name" alliances out there, the obvious ones being Pandemic Legion and Goons, almost everybody in eve has heard of them, but there's many others, slowly rising or falling, taking space or losing it. 

Alliances have a single corp as their head, and generally speaking it's the CEO of that corp who's the alliance leader. Sometimes this is done a little differently in practice, but the mechanics say that the leader of the corp thats at the head is the one with all the "power", the access to alliance assets etc.

Coalitions:

These are multiple alliances who form together towards a common goal, whether that be mutual security or destruction of a particular enemy. This is where the lack of mechanics brings it all down to a cult of personality, most eve related news stories you hear of coalitions having problems is down to personality clashes or similar. There's no mechanic to keep everybody together, there's no mechanical control over all the assets granted to an individual, and depending on the alliances involved communication between the groups may be less than perfect.

The obvious big name here, is the CFC, their figurehead may well be the Goons, but within the CFC are many other alliances, made up of many other corps, made up of thousands upon thousands of grunts.

I have, to this day, NEVER heard a coalition leader not be called an asshole. Perhaps it's a requirement of the job, perhaps it's an aspect of an individual that allows them to rise to the position in the first place, even leaders we will willingly follow into battle, who we know are great tacticians or excellent fleet commanders or miracle workers with propoganda, are generally considered assholes. Much of this boils down to the fact that your average grunt, will simply recieve an order to get in X ship and undock and spend the next hour on a fleet that they have no "personal stake" in, or no information about WHY they're there beyond "it's orders", we blindly follow the leader because Eve knows no other way, because to tell all the grunts what you're doing, guarantees that the spy-grunt in your channel relays the information to your enemies. As such, the leader is often seen as a dictator, they are generally only experienced at their worst (when trying to lead a fleet whilst listening to multiple sets of comms, herd the last few remaining kittens who still haven't found their ship etc) and because of the immense effort that one can only assume goes on behind the scenes, then immediately vanish post-fleet without so much as a "thanks for giving me 2 hours of your life by being on this fleet".