EVE General Discussion

This other thread just seems to confirm that the general consensus among the EVE population is to pop pods as a matter of course.

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=334351&find=unread

It occurs to me that people sparing pods, is incredibly unusual in the game, for whatever reasons. The question would be, if you have spared a pod, for reasons outside the immediately tactical, why did you do it? My experience is that no one in EVE honors ransoms anymore, there used to be a small chance, but now the tendency is that it is much more esteemed that one also extorts some ISK before reneging on any ransom negotiations, and a ransom demand is again a matter of course when one party thinks it can extort more. I've yet to encounter anyone who's busy trying to build a reputation as an "honorable" pirate.

So has anyone actually honored a ransom, at least recently? If so, what compells you to do so? Are there any stories of anyone being purposely spared for other purposes? Someone mentioned political reasons in the other thread, not needing to be too specific, what are the stories behind those reasons?

To me, this question is far more interesting than the standard responses the other thread has generated. Small instances of emergent gameplay if you will, given the rarity of its occurence.