Ettiquette questions from a newbie.

Hi, I'm fairly new to Ikariam, and I came across the alliances [MOB] and [MOB2] on Lambda. The have the best propoganda even if I haven't seen much of them in my corner of the world. So far I haven't researched diplomacy, so I haven't joined an alliance. I founded a second city, Pirate Amazons, almost immediately upon researching Expansion using resources gathered by attacking cities of players with zero Generals score even before they became officially inactive. I even researched expansion using an academy upgrades with pillaged crystals. Anyway, I'm wondering what your alliance considers proper etiquette regarding a few issues.

(1) Donations to island resources. Is it OK for a player to wait until he is near the max of workers before donating? How should I decide my fair share when I'm significantly lower level than any other non-leach players on the island? I'm on some of the higher level resource islands, the first by accident, the second by intent. I expect these to come in great use in the future. However, much of my resources so far have been from pillaging, and I dumped much of the money I got from pillaging into Cargo Ships because they can't be re-stolen, and much of the timber into buildings, so I don't fee like I owe anything yet.

(2) Attacking inactive members of an alliance. Should I avoid it altogether? Should I give the alliance a warning message? Should I wait for a response?

(3) Attacking non-inactive players with zero military. It pisses me off to see these guys with much larger cities than I, going for days without a war ship in their port or even a slinger behind their walls - i.e. with zero Generals score. So far I haven't pillaged a player in an alliance, but when I see them with zero military it annoys me and I wonder if their alliance is just a bunch of islands frogs, or whether they just don't keep a standing army but will retaliate as a group when one is attacked. But aside from threat of retaliation, which might not be that scary if I can spend out most of my resources I stole from them before they attack, especially since the attack features are buggy and group attacks are likely to attack each other, why shouldn't I pillage them and teach them a lesson?

~ Ephesus93

towns:
Marble Goddess
Amazon Pirates

1) Try and donate in proportion to the amount of workers you are using. If you don't you will be accused of leeching.



2) Inactive players are fair game. Just message the alliance and you are free to attack right away


3) Never start a fight you can't finish. If he has a generals score of 0, it doesn't mean he can't kick you ass later.