I'll just mention my most memorable and fun experience.
The most fun I've had with this game was several years ago, it might have been the first time I played it, or the second, I'm not sure.
I'd just joined a small-ish corp of about 20 or so people and we were just doing simple group mining, clearing out a belt. About a dozen of us total, I think. A couple of large mining ships. Maybe half a dozen smaller ones. A cargo ship that'd transport the minerals back to the station as they were mined and a couple of combat ships that hung around, popped in and out, but stayed in system, in case something came up.
Most of the mining was uneventful, but it was still fun just to sit around and talk with people while it was going on. One situation did come up, a couple of combat ships, destroyers, I think, jumped over to our belt and started messing with us. Never attacked us, but trash talked a bit and buzzed around us and our containers, I think to try to goad us into attacking. It wasn't 0.0 space, but it was pretty low, the lowest I had been in. I remember that was a bit fun, if nerve wracking.
I think the key there was the community. The feeling that we were working together and having someone there to just chat with while doing something so boring. I honestly didn't even stick with that group that long though. I think I might have played for about 2 months then.
The last couple times I played, once I mostly ran missions and hunted rats. The other time I tried out trading. Both of those got old quick, but I didn't really have anyone to do them with either. So... yeah.