I'm just going to come right out and say it:
700 posts of mindless drivel is not fun to read.
Granted, there's about 10% of useful tidbits going on in here. Some reads, whether they're good or not, and some actual real discussion. You know, the viable stuff that makes mafia mafia. The rest is absolutely unnecessary and has already sapped my will to even play this game. Expecting me, or anyone for that matter to go back later and sift through the rubbish at a later date because this stuff is quote 'helpful' is not my personal idea of having fun with these games. That sounds tedious as anything. There's still over two and a half days remaining until we get any concrete info (ie, a player's alignment) and yet I sense we're going to keep the verbal diarrhea going.
There's some saying not posting lets the scum blend in. That's true, I'll be the absolute first person say I've used that as a viable tactic because no discussion makes it an easier game to play as scum. But this is just as bad. How do you find the content? How do you form any sort of cohesive long-term thought when everything is changing literally by the half-hour? Naturally if I'm scum and don't want to stand out, I can just as easily make a handful of posts and disappear into the sea of nonsense. Maybe someone will call me on it, maybe not, but regardless it's not hard to hide when there's so much ancillary noise.
I was skim reading as best I could today, and somehow I ended up on a few suspect lists for one post. Now is that the meta on your other sites, ie, lynch the guys who don't post a zillion times, or was there something legitimately tangible someone, anyone would like to expand on? No I'm not going back to find who said it. It's day one, I don't even care. But that's exactly my point - things like that get buried so easily that's it's rather simple to forget it even happened.
But I'll play along and elaborate on why I voted edse. Anyone who knows me knows I hate distractions. They do nothing for the town, and the joking posts between Visor, Newyn, and whoever else early on accomplished zilch. Nada. So why post it? Now I know how Visor plays and it's not out of character for him to do the joking thing. I get it. But when others start piling on (edse in this case), it takes the conversation further from where it needs to be. Edse's vote is a throwaway. Everyone and their cousin knows that. So again, why vote there? It doesn't help, it doesn't add anything, and ultimately continues the farce of actual communication. So I went ahead and called him on it, hoping he'd elaborate and at least admit as such. Nope. Buried and gone. Forgotten under a sea of posts.
Noticing a trend here?
Another thing, can we please dispense with the meta game arguments, especially from other sites. I don't play there, and nor do I want to read three other game's worth of posts just so an argument can be made on how a player plays when (s)he's town or scum. Guess what? I can't be bothered to keep up here. You think I want to read them too? It's also difficult to treat such arguments with any more than a grain of salt, especially when I don't know your specific motivation for making said argument. Anything can be spun a particular way to suit an argument, and for crying out loud it's day one. We're really going there already?
I'm sorry if this post comes across as overly harsh and critical of a playstyle I cannot wrap my head around. It isn't meant to be and I'm truly glad we have some new blood to keep the games going. It's just incredibly difficult to come back to a game on my home site I don't even recognize and be expected to contribute at any sort of level, let alone a high one as I hold myself to.
Lastly, I've made this whole thing one post. A bunch of you will take the time to read through all of it. I thank you. I only ask that an attempt is made to consolidate your thoughts in the future in such a way to make the game more enjoyable for myself and anyone else who is getting overwhelmed at the amount of content being thrown at them.
((This also isn't a post to try and convince you play differently, or the start of a dialogue that results in a debate of mafia tactics. Clearly, there will be a ton disagreement and push-back from what I've said. That's for another thread. I do not want to discuss mafia strategy here, as it will detract from the game's purpose of finding the bad guys before they kill us all. So I also ask that we do not engage in a debate.))