In post 3, kirroha wrote:I know I'm not good at getting scumtells. But I've only played 4 games so far and I've gotten lynched early in all of them (or they ended early) and I had hardly any time to improve on it. So I'm always just confused all the time in games and tried to make sense of things by asking questions to people for the reasons behind some of their votes, but I get scumread for asking questions (because my question posts tend to be IIoA or something?).
The only reads I general get so far are that lurkers who don't contribute much are scummy, that's all. But it doesn't seem to work that way I guess. I'm just a bit bummed that I keep getting voted over lurkers who don't contribute much, and that these lurkers are who end up flipping scum in the end.
I'll give you some advice for your particular situation:
1) Scumtells are bullshit. Don't rely on them. Ask yourself why scum would do a certain thing, and if you can't come up with a good answer, look elsewhere.
2) Don't ask a ton of questions unless you're prepared to follow up on them. I mean, I do this sometimes too. But there are folks on the site who see it as "sniping," like... an easy way to look involved without getting your hands dirty. If you're going to ask questions, focus on one or two of your strongest scumreads and stick to them until they're either dead or looking more townie. Don't cast too wide a net.
3) "Lurking" isn't necessarily scummy. What you want to kill are the "not-really" lurkers. See, lurking is an easy way for scum to lie low, but plenty of town do it too. You're just as likely to lynch a town lurker as anything else. Plus, killing lurkers is seen as low-hanging fruit. It's easy to push wagon on the lurkers. They're not around to defend themselves. Look for the lurkers with an agenda. The ones who are conscientiously voting in certain ways or popping their heads in at opportune times. You get better at finding the "not-really" lurkaderps.
4) If you're getting voted over lurkers, it's because of 3. They may have flipped scum in the end, but it wasn't their behavior that was scummy. It was that you were seen as a low-content poster who went after the easy targets. *THAT* comes across as scummy.
My advice: Stop looking for scumtells. Don't ask questions unless you're prepared to follow up. Don't assume all lurkers are scum. Be conscious of how the town is perceiving you.
You could also try:
5) Pick out a town read or two. Don't overtly buddy them, but help them engage the town. Works even better if you've got long experience with them. (You can also form a defacto bloc with your town reads, aka the pirate mollie method. Though to be fair, mollie is charismatic and good at selecting her town blocs. This only comes with experience.)
