Red Herring

A red herring is a distraction technique, either to avoid having to come up with a reasonable defense to suspicions directed at the player, or to create a fog of confusion around precisely why some other player is suspicious. It is sometimes colloquially called the "baffle them with bullshit" technique.

Spamming within a game, or discussing irrelevant factors not directly related to the progression of the game and the logical targets for a lynch, can often fall under this argument. In other circumstances, however, they can reflect a particular players' posting style, or the flavor/roles in a given game.