TL Mafia XLV

prplhz does not have a pro-town agenda. If you look at all his posts, you will see that besides spreading doubt and fueling irrelevant discussions, prplhz never gives an indication that he is trying to figure stuff out. While he can be categorized as "active", he is just sticking to the sidelines and prodding without actually contributing and does not have a town agenda. This is a highly likely indicator that he is scum.

However, the most important piece of evidence is this post:

The bolded part is clearly sarcasm. What prplhz is claiming here is that he was in fact instrumental in Palmar's demise. Is this claim true?

Absolutely not. He does vote for Palmar, who flips red, but he does not contribute to the lynch to the extent he claims. Notice the timing of his posts.

Early in the game, prplhz says . It is fairly obvious that this is a joke post. Two posts later, he votes NotChezinu. 3 posts after that, he says "Palmar is actually scum this time" with no explanation.

After this, there is a lul in the anti-Palmar rhetoric, and prplhz doesn't give an opinion on Palmar until two hours before the lynch ends, when it is clear that Palmar is going to die. This post is the only post in which prplhz gives a substantial opinion on Palmar, and it comes far too late:


prplhz only votes Palmar after it is clear that Palmar is doomed. It is obvious that prplhz's post was not meant to influence people to vote Palmar, but to justify his vote. prplhz does not push Palmar's lynch at ANY time before this point, and doesn't contribute to the discussion when people are trying to figure out if they want to vote for Curu or Palmar. Look at prplhz's 3 posts before the one I just quoted:




Is he contributing to the lynch? No. First he underhandedly accuses Forumite by suggesting he doesn't care about the lynch. Then he asks Forumite of his opinion on Palmar/Curu and criticizes Forumite for not trying to figure out if Palmar/Curu are scummy townies or scum, while failing to provide any insight himself. It is obvious that prplhz is not trying to bring clarity to the thread, but is rather trying to stir doubt. Yet after the lynch, he claims (using sarcasm) that he was instrumental in Palmar's lynch. This is clearly not true.

prplhz is trying to claim undeserved credit for Palmar's lynch. There is no reason for a townie to do this. Thus, prplhz is mafia.

Dear town, please ignore wherebugsgo. If he starts making sense and stops making a bunch of baseless assumptions maybe I'll start listening to him. Until then, he's just taking up space and has 1/6 of all the posts in this thread. None of them are very interesting.

Also stop using gimmicky words like "OMGUS" and "meta". They're mostly meaningless terms people tack onto their "analyses" to make them look legitimate. I am not going to tolerate this nonsense. Unless you make some real arguments I will just ignore you or squish you like a bug, depending on how ridiculous you are.

Note that there is likely a lot of KP this game. Which should be fun if you are a vig, as there are plenty of nice juicy targets lying around.

Don't be afraid of PMs. As long as you watch yourself and don't do anything stupid, there's no reason not to take advantage of this resource. Can mafia manipulate? If you keep a healthy dose of skepticism and firmly ground your reasoning in logic, it is actually difficult for mafia to manipulate you. In fact, mafia love it when they can see every little thing that is going on in the thread. While PMs have the reputation for being a playground for manipulation and devious scheming, you just have to back off and look at things objectively and you'll be fine.

The main reason PMs are a huge benefit for the town is that it allows us to conceal our actions. In a no-PM game, the mafia have a very good idea of what people are thinking. Generally, most people will be on the wrong track, and occasionally a few will be on the right track. Since no information is withheld from them, they can accurately make informed decisions on night kills and general posting strategy in order to mislead the town and eliminate anyone who could possibly oppose them. If you skillfully use PMs, however, the mafia are unable to accurately judge how active and dangerous you actually are and will be forced to be proactive in PMs and in the thread in order to collect information. Of course, this is inherently uncomfortable for them, as it conflicts their inherent desire to hide. Everyone knows that "mafia start out with an information advantage over the town", but hardly anyone recognizes that mafia needs to maintain that advantage if they want to stay competitive as the game goes longer. Using a healthy dose of PMs makes it that much harder for them to stay on top of the ball. If anything, its easier to manipulate the mafia in PMs than the other way around.

With that said, unless something interesting happens (please feel free to let me know if you find anything), I'll be moving to PM land for now. Be back after the day post.