I believe this issue is important, and so am starting a separate thread from the "reset land control areas" thread that it originated in.
I believe that to attack towers for the primary reason that you know the tower owners are offline and not likely to come online soon is at best dishonorable play, and at worst, cheating.
To clarify, it is wrong to place primary strategic importance on the fact that someone is offline when planning an attack; there is nothing "generally" wrong, however, with attacking people who are offline.
For example, an attack at 9AM GMT on a Monday morning would be wrong if the attacker purposefully picked that time because it expected that few defenders would be logged on to defend.
If NW evolves into a game that requires you to maintain some constant connection with the game to avoid losing items/ground in the game due to dishonorable tactics, then I will find another game, and I suspect many feel the same way.
What are others' thoughts on this?