adendum. This is not to say that 1st can never attack a flag after the flag is accepted. for example if first is blocked in from the rest of the map and there is another unflagged player who might threaten the lead of 1st. there are other valid reason to attack a flagged player but thats not what this thread is about.

I think you are basically right on, but caution on automatically revolting .... sometimes the revolt can be a bad idea.

i talk big but i would rarely revolt
you kinda get the idea though, basically when i flag im not giving you first place and whatever dom you want. and if i happen to surpass you in dom then thats too bad cause im keeping my hard earned dom

i disagree.
if you flag 2nd you're saying you are not going for 1st (which means biggest player with most dom).

it's perfectly fair for 1st to prune you down to 2nd if you get too big.

naturally, you may revolt whenever you like.

I'm with you. I hate when you flag 2nd and then end up growing only to have 1st knock you down to 3 territories or something like that. You ARE flagging place, not dom!

I think the problem is you're not letting the smaller players fight for their places under you. If you expect 1st to respect your flag, I think you should stay out of other fights unless there's someone likely to take your place away from you.

If there's a potential threat to your place, either an unflagged neighbor who could turn on you and have a fair shot at beating you, or a remote opponent who might grow bigger than you and flag 2nd, then by all means securing your place is fair game. But if there's an unflagged neighbor who is clearly not a threat to you, and is fighting against others for a higher place (but not your place), I think it's wrong to interfere.

I also think it's OK for 1st to keep his dom--he didn't flag his dom to you either, so if you grow bigger and 1st wants his dom back, he's done nothing wrong IMO by keeping 1st place, including attacking 2nd to keep the ratio. Your post is a clear double standard--it's OK for me in 2nd to kill smaller players for dom, but it's not OK for 1st to attack me for dom.

the difference motorboat is that ive flagged to 1st and he has accepted my flag. these other players are A: a threat to my position and not flagged B: flagged for my position or C: so small that they wont get better position (like a solitary 8 stack endgame) or (like a couple of 2 or 3 stacks), or perhaps i am just eating islands. It is not a double standard because i am not taking dom from 1st because i am not attacking him. However if he decides to attack me he is in fact taking dom from me.

The common convention is that unaligned dom belongs to the player in first. So any grays that are in his reach belong to him. When you flag you are stating that you are the junior partner and are acquiescing to the control and direction of the senior partner. If you don't like that, then don't flag.

I have to say that personally i hate the practice of pruning flags and eating all of the neutrals. For one it seems petty and for two it just seems like a jerk thing to do. Second earned his place just like first did, why can't we all share and be friends? : )

pixel part of the point of this post is to point out that the current convention isnt necessarily correct