No problem, but I appreciate your appreciation. 
But I thought ATPG was one of the lynch leaders? Or do you mean the other ones as well? So that would be Chucara and RyJae?
Okay, it’s easy enough to do since unlike ATPG, the others don’t have that many posts.
As for RyJae, it seems as if s/he’s getting dinged mostly for this first post, 187:
I may be reading this wrong, or trying to put too good a face on it, but when I read this, I assumed that the first line was not RyJae claiming “Skimming as a scum tell” as a fact, but that it’s a “fact” that people usually state as a truism. BUT s/he didn’t believe it, because in fact, skimming was something RyJae does more as vanilla town than as power role or scum/independent.
S/he goes on to say that s/he was initially falling for the whole “Skimming = scum” to the point where even Babale’s apparent slip made RyJae’s spideysense tingle, but then remembered, “wait, no, that’s something I do when I’m vanilla town. Stop believing cliches when you know yourself they’re false, self!”
So I don’t see that as a slip the way others have. Again, I may just be parsing this differently from the rest of the RyJae voters. Thus I’m ignoring that particular argument.
Then there’s ATPG’s argument against RyJae from 505, which basically boils down to RyJae being nervous about voting to lynch on Day 1 because we have so little info that it’s likely we’ll hit a townie rather than scum, so RyJae is anti-Town because s/he cares too much about killing a townie.
Well, this may be a good point. I admit myself I hate D1 with a passion, though; it’s so scattershot and self-referential and meta and round-and-round-the-mulberry-bush-we-go where people overanalyze the absolute minutiae in order to justify their votes. (Which is kinda why “pancakes” is such a great answer, because that really does describe why most people are voting on D1. :D) I really don’t know if my dislike of this is due to being a relative newbie and thus not having a taste for the jugular that other players do, and so even a 'nilla townie’s life is precious to me because I haven’t really owned the fact that vanillas are basically expendable… at least, as much as anyone is in this game who isn’t scum.
Since I don’t know if RyJae is like me, it’s hard for me to justify voting for someone who feels the same way I do. If I knew more about RyJae’s history–yes, here’s where knowing someone’s history is useful–I might be able to make this judgment call. But I’d just find it hypocritical to ding him/her for feeling as I do.
Ultimately, the question is, is it anti-Town to advocate lynching nobody on D1? Possibly. Obviously it does put us at a disadvantage because it’s sure as hell that the Werewolves will attack at Night and they certainly won’t have any bleedin’ debate or ethical conundrum about doing so. So lynching someone on D1 is the only chance we have of a level playing field, even if it’s purely by chance if we hit a scum on the first try, and even if we do risk hitting a vanilla or, much worse, a power role.
I guess all this is me saying… I just don’t know. I can understand why people are voting for RyJae, but I’m not entirely sure why so many are. There just isn’t enough there there. Maybe I empathize too much, I dunno. I don’t think there’s any sign of a wagoning, but I think there are better candidates and better arguments than the ones for RyJae. OTOH, if s/he’s scum, so be it, and yay. I will say that if RyJae is scum and gets lynched, I really think it’s more chance than skill that led this particular scum up to the gallows.
Although I am tempted to vote for RyJae for continually mangling my name as “chloie.” Now that is a total scum tell.
Okay, so that leaves Chucara, right?
Well… it seems that first people got on the case because Chucara either skimmed or didn’t quite grok the idea behind the Barn. Honestly? I can’t dun him/her for that; I don’t fully grok the idea behind the Barn. (I realize that I’m setting a very low standard here if I’m judging everybody by how I play, but still, barring my knowledge of their style, it’s all I can do.) And skimming, as mentioned above in the RyJae stuff above, really doesn’t feel like a scum tell even if that’s what Received Opinion says. The sole time I was Scum, I was super-analyzing everyone’s posts, even though I appeared not to, because I absolutely needed to keep track of everything and everybody. Then again, I was playing alone, and I didn’t have a team of Scum to back me up, so maybe this is a bad precedent to use. Just don’t know.
Next people leapt on Chucara for the whole “pancakes” deal. I’m sorry, but even if it causes people to wrap the rope around my neck and swing me up, I cannot vote a person who came up with the “pancakes” gambit. It’s too awesome. I realize this is a craptastic reason to trust anyone, but well, it’s the best I’ve got on D1.
More seriously, “pancakes” is obviously code for “an inkling but barely a rationalized one, or in other words, the same reason for voting as everyone else on D1.” That’s as good as we’ve got today (except my hugely rational voting, that is! :D).
I think some of jumped on the fact that Chucara hasn’t removed the vote on orthohedron despite not having a reason for it. I can’t argue with that. But if s/he truly thinks one random vote is as good as another on D1, then why should Chucara remove the vote? Admittedly s/he did remove the vote on Babale, but this unvote was explained as occuring due to Babale really feeling like Town. If Chucara doesn’t have that kind of instinct for ortho, then why remove the vote?
I can’t mistrust a guy or gal for voting randomly on D1. It’s part of what D1 is, and unlike many other votes, Chucara’s vote is honest about its randomness.
Annnnnd there you have it. Those are my thoughts on those two folks. Is there someone else I should be considering so far?
Since I last posted, to be honest ATPG is pinging me more lately, because the aggressive defensiveness feels off to me. I admit I am way less invested in this game than ATPG is, but since he’s claiming vanilla townie I don’t see why he’s getting this outraged at being in first or second place. Vanillas are redshirts. It’s part of the contract: redshirts who stand too close to that comm panel during a battle with the Romulans will get fried and die, unloved and unmourned, and frankly unnamed. So suck it up and accept your fate. It’s what I’d do. In my first and second games I was outraged. By now? I know what’s best for Town, and again, lynching a vanilla isn’t great but it’s the better option of lynching a power role.
If, in fact, you are vanilla town. :dubious:
