oops - sorry - I edited - please forgive me.
OMGUS = Oh My God U Suck…aka you vote for me, I vote for you!
What he said. And if anyone else edits their posts I am going to really get irritated and start posting much more frequently. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
[oog]Why does it matter whether people edit their posts or not?[/oog]
OMGUS: Oh My God You Suck!
A vote that’s given purely because the votee voted for you first. The problem with OMGUS is that it helps town not a whit. There is no real pro-town rationale behind it, and it can’t really be used when analyzing previous votes as an indication for anything. Basically, it’s viewed as an annoyance and as a null-tell.
Though, on Day 1, OMGUS, IMO, isn’t that big of a deal because it at least has some rationale behind it, which puts it above the random vote. The rationale usually comes down to either: 1) I’m town, and voting for me is a bad move so I’ll vote for you because right now you’re hurting town, or 2) I’m scum, and voting for me make me just want to target you because I really have no better reason.
In later Days, OMGUS should be avoided because it doesn’t help town. Even in Day 1, it doesn’t really add much, but as I said, neither do random votes. It’s why I tend to favor a lynch the lurker strategy. At least it gets people talking more, which is what is needed for town to win. Scum don’t want to draw attention to themselves, generally, so lurking works well for them, unless people are actively calling out the lurkers. I guess it’s just a way of keeping everyone participating.
Of course, these are just my views. Other people no doubt have other approaches.
Basically, two main reasons:
#1: People can make errors. They may reveal more than they originally intended in their posts. While typically not a problem for vanilla town, it is unfair in the case of town power roles and scum. If a town power role accidentally outs himself, scum get cheated out of vital information to them. If a scum accidentally outs himself, town gets cheated. Non-editing prevents this scenario.
#2: Editing screws with the history of a poster. Granted, in boards like this one where you can only edit for a limited amount of time, it’s not too much of a deal. But in boards that allow edits indefinitely, someone can go back and change things to screw with the game when someone goes to analyze past posts. Once again, it violates the spirit of the game.
So, editing typically will get you mod-killed or replaced in any forum. Seeing as how many here are newbies, anyrose might get a pass for her glitch, particularly since she called herself on it, but ultimately that’s up to our mod, and I have a feeling that any more edits will be dealt with harshly, as well they should.
I would be interested in hearing people talk about whether they prefer a random vote, or a “lynch the lurker” vote on day one.
To me it makes sense to do a random vote for day one, since I’m not sure that there is even a lot of room for lurking on the first day. A random vote has the potential to get everyone talking. However, I suppose that I could be convinced otherwise if the argument was sound.
okay I get it. But if we’re just randomizing right now, how do you know I didn’t put all the names in a hat and Thing Fish’s is the one I picked? It’s the first vote.
I don’t know, it seems to me OMGUS things happen in everyday life all the freakin’ time. Why is it such a no-no in here? Are some of you maybe taking this game a bit too seriously?
I don’t think that it is a no-no, people seem do it all the time. Often times people have their reasons to vote for the person that voted for them, and other times they do it simply out of spite. Either way, the vote is yours, use it however you see fit.
OMGUS is a legitimate terminology used to describe that sort of vote in a Mafia game. It doesn’t necessarily mean that anyone’s panties are unduly in a wad. It’s not necessarily a “no-no”, but it will likely be noted. Expect to see it again.
Pull up your chairs and I will tell you a story of things that happened long ago.
Once upon a time long ago when the scum were less prevalent and the town was trying to erase this scourge from the land there was a townsperson that spoke things that were unfathomable. He/She spoke of the transferrance of bad powers. Unfortunately for her/him a townie overheard this conversation (it was not a PM but posted normally). This was recorded on a thing called the internet. The bad person attempted to erase his sayings. Alas, the townie had seen his nefarious plottings. After some discussion the Mod from whom all blessings flow decided that the traitor’s evidence could be presented to the town. After about two seconds the traitor was streached and scum he be. And all was well in the town.
So it is the beginning, so shall it be in the end.
Just don’t edit your freaking posts - K?
I disagree. I feel that OMGUS votes, especially on Day One, are always an infallibly reliable scumtell 
, so my vote for anyrose is now vindicated.
And by the way,** bufftabby**, I don’t trust you either! I see how you sit there for hours staring at me while I’m innocently swimming around in my little bowl. I know you always say you just want me to come out so you can snuggle with me, but I’m not buying it!! 
Unkempt, I think that random votes can be a way of putting pressure not to lurk on people. Although it could well be a coincidence, for instance, I don’t think anyrose had posted anything since the game started until I put the second vote on her. If she had continued not to say anything, that would strongly suggest that she was, if not scum, at least not the kind of Townie who was likely to make good contributions to our cause, and therefore a good lynch candidate. Mind you, posting a couple lines of OMGUS doesn’t exactly convince me to move my vote off her, but it’s a start.
I, personally, will be going lurker lynch. This seems to be a green game and I believe that the only way to develop some additional players for other games is to encourage discussion. This is only my second game and am truly interested to see how some of the fledglings stretch their wings. No matter what; say something and state your feelings. Other folks are going to give you shit but what the hey. It’s only a game. I am not inclined to give the lurker/under the radar player a whole buch of wiggle room. I’d rather interact.
My two cents, of course.
And to quote BlasterMaster this is a blast.
Rule Amendment: No editing posts.
Rule Clarification: "In the event of a tie, the moderator will decide on a victim at random." (from those that hold the tie)
And I think this goes without saying, but all SDMB rules apply as well.
Had you been paying attention to my earlier posts in this very thread, I’d said I had a ton of errands to do, cleverly couched in the phrase “going to Shelbyville”. So, when I finally was able to post, I find that I am the victim of a dogpile-on-the-rabbit. I reacted accordingly.
I also stated, and will restate, lest you all think I am in hiding, awaiting the damned verdict, that my ability to post during the workday is entirely dependant on the non functioning of the company’s firewall which is a rare occurance, indeed.
Add that to the fact that I have obligations in the real world most every evening, and I usually only post early in the morning (this is early for me) or well into Prime Time.
You know, I’m SO glad RoOsh isn’t in this game (and if you’re reading this one, :P!). If you go back and look, he has pages and PAGES in his posts. If there’s any poster that can force you to scan a game, it’s him.
Hoopy, how do you feel about lurkers later in game, rather than at the start? Generally as the game gets further, you don’t gain as much information from them. With someone who participates, we can get a voting history, who they have and have not defended, and a general idea of where they were going. With a lurker (lets say, someone who votes, and pokes in for 1- 2 posts) with very little content, how can you get too much from it?
Ok so my prediction failed horribly but now that I get two votes does that mean I have a different superpowers? I’m thinking that I shall use this new awesome power to vote for . . . ::Closes eyes, points finger and spins in a circle, falls down and ends up points at self:: . . . Umm. . . never mind who needs to be random. As I am no longer lurking I think that voting for lurkers is the way to go, except on weekends. Because the fishing is amazing and I can’t post and fish at the same time. 
Fair enough, point. However, one must also note that random votes are only intended as a conversation started and should NEVER be where the vote ends up at the end of the Day. In fact, since you bring up Simpletown, that was one of the points I raised against zuma, was the fact that he made a random vote on Day One, and left it there the whole Day. That alone, however, isn’t scummy IF he had later had a reason for leaving it there, but he did not.
That said, I would consider a failure to respond after having gotten a vote sufficient reason to leave a vote on that individual, provided that is the reason given for the vote.
So, in the end, I imagine lurkers will either retain their random vote OR a vote will be moved from an active player to a lurker.
The way I see it is if everyone says they are going to vote for lurkers the scum won’t lurk so it defeats that purpose. Personally how I’m going to vote once we start getting established is vote for the “me too” person, the person trying very hard to be vanilla. That’s my plan, subject to change anyway.
If you have nothing to fear you should be able to post anything and accuse anyone you feel is scummy, if nothing else you get lynched and are a vanilla townie and that narrows down who the scum are. Best case though is that your accusations lead to finding scum. So I guess what I am saying, is I'll be voting for the persons who try to stay invisible but yet post. Bad plan? I don't know this is only game 2 for me learning as I go.
Though for day 1 I will be voting for a lurker eventually, as it’s about the only thing we have to vote for starting out.
It seems to me (and yes, I am posting from work - like I said - sometimes I can) that *any * stated voting strategy allows the scum to do the reverse. So why give away your plan at all?