I've been playing the past couple days fumbling my way through. Really fun game but pretty overwhelming with the complexity it offers. Couple questions of things I keep running in to:
While flying around I find lots of things like beacons, and signals, 90% of the time I enter one of these there doesn't seem to be anything there or going on. For instance last night I found a beacon that had some traders inside, when I jumped in they were just floating there and I couldn't see anyway to interact with them. Is this just one of those things were I could pirate them if I wanted or move on?
Yup, that's exactly it. It is also the biggest complain with the Unidentified Signal Source. Randomness is good for variety, but it is frustrating to drop in, roll your eyes and FSD out again and again, looking for a particular kind of encounter.
Is there a way to see what is on a bulletin board at a station before docking there? I keep jumping to different stations looking for missions only to find I can't actually take any of them.
Nope, that's how it is done.