This removes the ability of scum to self-hammer, though. And there's no good way to loophole it in.In post 20, Fenchurch wrote:Not really. You just put it in your rules: 'Self-votes won't be counted. If you vote yourself it will be treated as if you are not voting.'
I agree that town selfvotes are often detrimental to the town wincon, but what's important in determining if the player in question is playing to their wincon isn't whether it's actually detrimental, it's whether they perceive it to be detrimental. And there are tons of possible town motivations for selfvoting that are actually motivations that are trying to further the town win condition:
-A townie selfvotes to garner reactions and base reads off of those reactions
-A townie selfvotes in an attempt to be read as town, because they perceive it as an effective way to show that they are town
-A townie selfvotes near deadline to avoid a NL
-A townie selfvotes for role-specific reasons: some have been mentioned, but another good example is a vengeful townie who thinks they have a good shot or who knows that their lynch will restore parity.
-A townie selfvotes to end the day earlier than deadline because they perceive the remaining time in the day as detrimental to the town (for instance, if they see their lynch as inevitable and see the town wallowing away in inactivity waiting for a flip)
etc etc. This is just a smattering
The important common thread in all of these examples is that the townie in question believes that their actions promote the town win condition, and so they are not playing against their win condition. Certainly there are cases where townies selfvoting is playing against their win condition, but just as certainly banning selfvotes removes or punishes a slew of legitimate strategic options.