I was offered a book from my wish list, I accepted it, and then when looking on my account page, it says I was offered it because I was friends with the sender, who is also a Standard member? I was 27th on the list.  How does this work?  Thanks.

When you post a book a list of friends wishing for that book shows on the right side of the post page. The choice then is to pick a friend to send the book to or to opt to send it FIFO.

I think many opt for the friend as that might assure the book being marked received.

Also that the book will be requested. So many people left the site when they had to pay and they didn't delete their books, so they still show as members and the book can sometimes languish for days. Pat

Thanks everyone, I guess that makes sense,  I"ve never noticed the 'send to a friend'  when posting a book.

Though I have lots of friends, I probably only post one that has a friend desiring it once in about 20 books. 

From the Help Center:

If you are enrolled in Standard Annual Membership, you'll have the Friends Direct feature enabled on your account, which will let you offer the book to a Friend easily, right from the Post Books screen.

To use Friends Direct:

• You need to be enrolled in Standard Annual Membership
• Just go to the Post Books page and enter the ISBN into the space there
• If any Friends are actively wishing for that ISBN, you will see their names on the right side of the Post Books screen. You can choose a Friend OR choose to post "FIFO" (to offer the book to the first wishing member in the queue). Then post as usual.

Also:

"So many people left the site when they had to pay and they didn't delete their books, so they still show as members"

Actually, if a member hasn't logged in for 18 months, their account is automatically suspended, so their books won't show up (until they write in to reactivate their account) and they don't show as members.

Also, if a member misses several consecutive requests, or several consecutive wish list offers, their account is placed on hold (so their books don't show up). They can reactivate their account themselves by clicking that they are back and ready to swap.

The account suspension and account hold are two measures that help weed out abandoned accounts. But, of course, you will still sometimes run into an account that hasn't quite reached the 18 month limit, or has hasn't yet ignored several consecutive requests or offers. But letting your transaction with that inactive person play out, and be canceled by the system, helps the system identify the account as inactive.

Thanks, Patty for letting us know about suspended or 'held' accounts.