although this goes against my alliance, i agree one man alliances should be taking off the ranking page. although some times its needed to have an alliance tag so people while leave you alone. its a pain in the butt having spam messages to join peoples alliance and if you have a tag they are more then likely going to leave you alone minus some of the persistent buggers.
power in numbers is not a wise way to run an alliance since it is easier to gain a spy witch while release alliance members activity statue to outsiders.

its best to operate in smaller numbers, with players you can trust, and coordinate attacks with. is also nice having a couple miners in the group if your a turtle then you really don't need an alliance, other then to converse with. being a turtle is a rather boring route of the game.