@tigor You're welcome. I've personally converted about 20 players to boosted only between FS and forums, and the only complaint I hear is that they wish they'd done it sooner.
Btw the reason you "don't have extra to trade" is because you have non-boosted
Just imagine instead of making
4,000 planks
1,000 steel
1,000 marble
you could be making
12,000 planks
You're losing HALF of your daily production now, but if you want to wait until you are losing 66% that's your call
And regarding the 50% penalty, other players that are far away from you (but are bigger) don't have to pay any penalty because they have already discovered you.
When you are small there are far more players that can
take your trades compared to players whose
trades you can take.