Board Thread:Friend Code Exchange/@comment-30224201-20170112055221/@comment-32738051-20170112070926

Well, that's certainly one way to look at it, Turtle. But the beauty of this game is that it can be played virtually any way one wants and is able to play it. Which means if we want others to respect the way we need and desire to play, we have to do the same for them as well.

I have been a non-gifter deleter in the past and it was at a time when I was recording gifting info in a spreadsheet offline. It's great when you're getting started and trying to figure out what works best for you (or as you try to change what works best for you, if you get to that point). But it can be very time consuming, to the point of you not being able to do more in game. While I was recording gifting, I set standards, which I changed periodically, by which I would continue, or not, gifting a friend and by which I eventually would delete a friend if necessary. Currently, I no longer record gifting at all but instead I continue gifting someone, whether they gift me or not, until their gift box is full. If it stays full long enough, I delete them for being inactive. I can do this because I got my FL (friends list) to a point where I have a good enough group of friends who usually stay active like me. And letting go of all that tracking helps me have more time to do more in game. Like visiting and checking player details and scrolling through my inventory to gift better collection items (CIs) based on a friend's needs. And like time traveling (TT), which I currently do every day. Speaking of TT, those limits - 50 free gifts (CEs) and 10 inventory gifts (CIs) - don't really apply if and when you TT (they do on a per day basis but when you TT you can gameplay multiple days in a single calendar day). Also, I used to try for those awards you mention, like getting to 50 or more friends for the Friendship award. I got my FL to 50, got the award, and then scaled back to a current max of 48. That was because I couldn't do as much as I wanted to do in game unless I reduced my list. The awards just weren't worth it, not enough of a payout. I even used to check my standings amongst my friends on the Top 1000 but not so much any more. I have too many high level friends now to ever get higher on the list. And you know how you say gifting should be a 2-way street? Well, those players trying to get to the highest Friendship awards, they're never going to gift you as much as you do them, possibly not at all or only a thank you (TY) gift now and then. And to work around them and other people who play differently can be a lot to keep track of without an offline tracking mechanism and using one to track all the variations can eat up even more of your gameplay.

But that's just how I play and have played the game. I've found that every player I've played with is unique in some way. Sometimes it jives with the way I play. Sometimes it doesn't. I like to quote Star Trek at times like these (yes, I'm a Trekkie). There was a symbol Spock used to wear and reference on occasion. The symbol is representative of IDIC: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination (yes, I used to have one). For you non-Trekkies out there, here's another good one: variety is the spice of life. Both are something I'm finding are gradually - oh so gradually - becoming true of the world we live in in general. And it is certainly true of this game and the people who play it.

So what I am trying to say is there's nothing necessarily wrong with players saying they delete non-gifters. Saying so means they may be able to avoid adding such players and those players may be able to avoid them. There's enough different people playing this game, with enough different ways of playing, that none of us should have to play people who aren't a good match for us and it's nice to know that up front rather than discover much later it isn't going to work out. Should such players still desire to be connected, well then they know up front what to expect, don't they? The same thing is true for every other preference we may have for our own gameplay and for those we add as friends. It may take a lot of extra time to use an offline tracking method but it doesn't take a lot of time to post some gameplay and friends preferences on our profile pages here and to be up front about it when, in a post, considering adding someone on this Wiki to our FLs.

Just a suggestion. 😉 I think this could become a heated topic if we let it but I think this could be a really interesting discussion if others go ahead and post some suggestions they would make. I don't always succeed but I do always try to see the other side in any opinion presented and I'll bet there are a good many differing opinions out there about this. 👪