A lot of people, and several in my guild, have personal swap agreements. I think it's against the spirit of a swap thread to post GBs for which most of the valuable spots are already locked up.
The spirit of a swap thread is ppl pay in, and you get back rewards some of the time. If EVERYONE did the thing I hate, swap threads would just be a waste, since no one gets anything out of it and they might as well just self level and save the time. So clearly, the "honest" swap threaders are subsidizing those who have beneficial agreements amongst themselves and use the swaps to finish off the GB.
It upsets me, obviously, and clearly most ppl here are going to yell at me and just tell me I should do the same, but that's not the point.
A more subtle way of taking advantage is to only jump in on a couple people's GBs, but obviously that's far different and that I personally have no problem with.
This is a great discussion point congrats for bringing it up
I will share my experience and opinion on this topic as its something that has changed a lot over my 218 days of play.
On day 60 i had 30,000 ranking points, 2 gbs, and was content content guild hopping (for the coins) ... i didnt participate in fp swap threads or fp swaps of any kind for that matter. Luckily i ended my guild hopping for the day in a random guild called the Humble Horde. It was a small guild and when i logged in the following day all the members had welcomed me to the guild. I had planned on continuing my hopping ways but their warm welcome made me relunctant to leave.
I decided to stick around for a bit to see what it was like to be part of a guild... at first didnt participate in any swaps and used all my fps on tech. I erected a couple more GBs and they were all incredibly generous in helping get them out of the mud and i realized how helpful being in a good guild could be.
Soon i had 5 GBs but still didnt participate in the swaps... most of the members had close to 1 million points and daily fp collections that i could not compete with so i didnt even try and just focused on Tech.
Upon reaching the end of the EMA tech tree i was making 8 fps a day + 24 for the hourly... instead of progressing to Hma i started to participate in the swaps ... i targeted only 1 or 2 gbs at a time and hardly ever had the required fps when i posted in the swap threads. I would always message the person and let them know how many fps i owed them ... my guild mates were fine with this and in this manner i was able to snag reward spots i would have been unable to get otherwise
At some point during my early stages of doing swaps i was resentful of how much more fps my guildmates had access to but by playing a lot, targeting only a few buildings, and being allowed to participate in swaps by owing fps i was able to leverage my lack of fps and still compete to some extent ... over time i became more and more able to secure reward spots and become increasingly competitive.
Being in a small guild it was easier to identify the tendencies of my guild mates and prioritize accordingly. Some were oppourtunist posting only on certain buildings (like me), some logged on once a day and did not discriminate (they filled all the swap threads regardless whether or not they would get a reward), and some used the guild swap threads to level their buildings to a certain point and then gave 1st or 2nd to someone else (either with an outside swap, or by inviting a lv 80 arcer snipe a spot at no cost to them... other than angry guildmates lol)
When i first realized this was a practice i was yet again a bit frustrated because my GBs were not appealing enough to have a lv 80 arcer to the same for my buildings ... however i did eventually realize that i had no cause to be upset as they were just doing what was best for them.
This is the most important thing to realize about playing FoE seriously. You need to realize that everyone will (or should) do what is most profitable for them. If that means leveling ones arc 500 / 1000 through guild swap threads and then getting 400 free points by inviting lv 80 arcs to snipe then that is what you should expect a player to do ... one shouldnt get mad at a guildmate for doing what is best for them.
Also it is helpful to remember that even if you invested a lot of fps and didnt get a reward it was not a waste ... you still leveled your GB just as effectively as you would have if you self leveled but atleast you gave yourself a shot at a reward
Participating in guild fp swap threads can sure be frustrating at times but if one is smart, patient, and understanding, it is the best avenue for generating extra fps while leveling up your GBs ... go for rewards but never expect them unless you lock a spot
Today is day 218, i have 15 GBs, over 1 million points, and my daily fp collection is 77 + 24 hourly. Iwould be much further behind had i not embraced the swap game and battled through the many setbacks ive experienced in participating in them along the way
Sorry if this post was long and convoluted but i thought that my experience was relevant enough to share
