Barring *very specific setup or role interactions* there is literally NEVER a time when a town player should self vote.
A self vote as a joke is a dumb joke.
A self vote as a rage quit shows poor play and whiny inability to deal with the situation you're in or to simply request replacement.
A self vote as a strategy...well, that requires very specific role/setup interactions, but doing it as a "test" of how people react to it is only likely to "test" who finds it a dumb move. Whoop-dee-doo.
As scum there are plenty of reasons to self vote.
Denies town planning time in a self hammer situation.
Hurts VCA.
Induces wifom due to AtE gak. (how many times have you seen someone town read someone else for a self vote? I know I see it a fair shake)
Oh, wow, look at that, it's almost like self-voting aids scum and hurts town. Shock.
So why the hell do any town players EVER allow themselves to self-vote? You're voting a confirmed town at that stage - that is playing against your wincon, quite frankly. Honestly, if I think i could get away with it I'd petition the board to make that a universally accepted rule that, as town, a self vote is playing against wincon and is thus bannable. That's about how much I'm offended by it when any town player does it.
And the benefits for scum? Literally half of them are only there because derp town chooses to self vote as a rage quit type option or as their only answer to a wagon/case.
I used self-voting as scum early in my career to get town read or to dismantle wagons on me. Recently, as an alt account, I used it again, and it worked beautifully. Everyone was all like 'oh dear, look at that poor frustrated town, unvote!' and I skunked a win for my scum team. Why should I be allowed to get away with that? Why should town need to try to sort out whether someone is a derp town or a vile scum just due to a single vote?
I am really making this as a rallying cry.
I want self-votes to become the purview of only scum - and thus crush them as a scum tool barring self-hammers.
All it takes is for people to stop self-voting and also to stop treating a self vote as anything but null, and eventually as a scum tell as we weed it out.
The only reason I can personally think of for people to keep self voting as town is to defend the tool for their scum game - and I don't need you bolstering your weak scum play by tanking your town games. Just leave the crutch behind, you'll become a stronger player as both alignments.
I'd love to hear praise for my brilliance
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Or, reasoning for why a self-vote is a valid town tool *outside* of specific setup/role interactions.
Example posts of good/bad uses of self-voting might also be useful, to show how you have experienced/practiced them.
All of mine would be me as scum using them to avoid a lynch...which supports my thesis as far as I can tell.