This post is so true. Unfortunatley, if you don't join alliances you are usually crushed by them. It is hard to find a good alliance that actually cares about you and will help you without getting something in return. I'm still looking at alliances to join, I think I've settled on one. My advice is don't join any of the sanctioned alliances, none of them seem to be as great as the recruitment offers they send to you. Plus, I think most of them allow tech raiding but I'm not sure on that.
I hate tech raiders so much, I've never been tech raided before but it sure does seem like a cheap-$@! way to ruin somebody's fun while piling on more useless tech.