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When a player is intentionally quiet during a game's [[Day]], or misses their [[Night Choice]], they are said to be '''lurking'''. The term most often applies to voluntary absence, but players who unintentionally find themselves absent over a sufficient length of time without first notifying the [[game moderator]] and other players are also often accused of lurking (even though they are more accurately [[flaking]]).  
'''Lurking''' is the act of intentionally not posting during a game [[Day]].  This is not to be confused with not having access at all, which can range from a legitimate excuse to [[flaking]].


Although frowned upon by other players because it slows down the Day, gives other players fewer posts to analyze, and decreases the information gained during the [[Night]] phase, lurking can be helpful at times to both [[Pro-Town]] and [[Scum]] players. For example, a [[Doctor]] or [[Cop]] may lurk during a Day phase in order to observe the behavior of others and not draw attention to themselves to be killed by the [[Scum]] at [[Night]]. Alternatively, [[Scum]] may wish to "lie low" if they see their position as precarious, and wait for some other player to make [[:Category:Logical Fallacies|logical fallacies]] or show weakness that can be capitalized on in order to direct suspicion elsewhere.
Lurking is a profoundly defensive strategy.  In exchange for not providing any information to the Town, lurkers render themselves very difficult to eliminate due to the lack of information needed to build a convincing reason to eliminate them (beyond the obvious excuse "they're lurking").  These are both negative traits as far as the Town is concerned; in addition to being unhelpful for finding others' alignments, they're unhelpful for displaying their own. Thus, lurking is a preferable strategy for scum if they are allowed to get away with it, as they provide no help to the Town and can simply wait as the active players self-destruct on each other.


===Active Lurking===
Thus, lurkers are considered infuriating to deal with from the Town's perspective, and players who lurk regardless of alignment are usually considered bad players (if not bad people in general).  However, some players manage to justify lurking even as Town.  Power roles such as [[Doctor]] or [[Cop]] may deliberately avoid posting so as to avoid the scum's notice, thereby avoiding the nightly kills until it is time for them to claim. Alternatively, some players believe that it is best to sit on the sidelines during Day 1 and pick up the pieces on subsequent Days after there is information to go on.
A subset of lurking is the so-called "active lurking", where a player posts in the thread but without making any contribution to the progress of the game. Their posts may be minimal in length, off-topic, or merely parroting what other players have already said.


==Prodding Lurkers==
Pressuring lurkers with votes and wagons generally does not avail much, as the lurker knows the votes are only there for pressure.  The best way to deal with lurkers is via process of elimination - if you are able to roughly gauge how many scum there are in the active players, you can guess how many scum are in the set of lurkers.  This tends to work better if the vast majority of the active posters are Town-aligned, though. In games where there are several scum in the active players and/or the lurkers are mostly Town-aligned, consider yourself hosed.
Moderators should be careful not to [[prod]] Scum more often than they do Pro-Town players. In addition, giving players the option to confirm their presence by [[PM]] rather than an in-thread post has traditionally been considered fair to those who are intentionally lurking. A new moderator standard may be developing; see [http://www.mafiascum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7844 this thread].
 
As scum, lurkers are best eliminated when the Town does not have any strong alternatives.  Since you know who the scum are, you can direct the elimination away from your lurking partners.
 
Lurkers are harmful to the town, as multiple town lurkers allow scum to also lurk and not be eliminated. This results in scum being unable to be read, so it is more likely for town to be eliminated.
 
See also [[Active Lurking]].


[[Category:Glossary]]
[[Category:Glossary]]
[[Category:How to Play]]
[[Category:How to Play]]
[[Category:How to Mod]]

Latest revision as of 04:12, 3 July 2020

Lurking is the act of intentionally not posting during a game Day. This is not to be confused with not having access at all, which can range from a legitimate excuse to flaking.

Lurking is a profoundly defensive strategy. In exchange for not providing any information to the Town, lurkers render themselves very difficult to eliminate due to the lack of information needed to build a convincing reason to eliminate them (beyond the obvious excuse "they're lurking"). These are both negative traits as far as the Town is concerned; in addition to being unhelpful for finding others' alignments, they're unhelpful for displaying their own. Thus, lurking is a preferable strategy for scum if they are allowed to get away with it, as they provide no help to the Town and can simply wait as the active players self-destruct on each other.

Thus, lurkers are considered infuriating to deal with from the Town's perspective, and players who lurk regardless of alignment are usually considered bad players (if not bad people in general). However, some players manage to justify lurking even as Town. Power roles such as Doctor or Cop may deliberately avoid posting so as to avoid the scum's notice, thereby avoiding the nightly kills until it is time for them to claim. Alternatively, some players believe that it is best to sit on the sidelines during Day 1 and pick up the pieces on subsequent Days after there is information to go on.

Pressuring lurkers with votes and wagons generally does not avail much, as the lurker knows the votes are only there for pressure. The best way to deal with lurkers is via process of elimination - if you are able to roughly gauge how many scum there are in the active players, you can guess how many scum are in the set of lurkers. This tends to work better if the vast majority of the active posters are Town-aligned, though. In games where there are several scum in the active players and/or the lurkers are mostly Town-aligned, consider yourself hosed.

As scum, lurkers are best eliminated when the Town does not have any strong alternatives. Since you know who the scum are, you can direct the elimination away from your lurking partners.

Lurkers are harmful to the town, as multiple town lurkers allow scum to also lurk and not be eliminated. This results in scum being unable to be read, so it is more likely for town to be eliminated.

See also Active Lurking.

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