How To Mod - Version 2.0

[Mr. Flay]

I prod after 3 days (no weekends) in games with less than 14 players or so; 4 days otherwise. My spreadsheet is set up to flag their name red if their last post is X days ago. Also, I always give players (but especially scum) the option to respond by PM if they are intentionally lurking.

Those who don't have Excel may want to consider Open Office or Google Spreadsheets. http://www.openoffice.org/ and http://docs.google.com/

Nice work, GL. I'd suggest just a couple things:
1) Link to the games/threads you're referring to.
2) I always edit my first post and title before posting the day/lynch scene. This has the added advantage that when the email goes out to tell them that a new post has been made to the thread, it will have the corrected subject to show them that something SIGNIFICANT has happened. This seems to avoid missed night choices better.
3) I usually do confirmations in thread, again because it seems to increase the chances of the thread making it on people's Watched Topics list.
4) You might mention the perils of townie confirmation through identical role PMs. I never make more than one or two the same, and even then only when I'm feeling lazy.

5) Care to upload a sample Excel spreadsheet to the wiki files? It might make a nice resource (I think that filetype is allowed).

Crap, apparently they're not allowed, though maybe mith/JEEP can make an exception, or we can host one somewhere else.

[Mr. Flay]

Kelly, I strongly disagree with you. If a player picks up her prod, yet chooses not to post, then I feel that it is bastard moddery to interfere with their chosen style of play. It is not up to the mod to decide how people should play. It is up to the mod to fascilitate a smooth game, and let the players duke it out, not insert themselves into the game, which is something you come dangerously close to doing if you do what you describe.

This is all just my opinion, of course.

Agreed. It's only my responsibility for setting the game in motion and continuing its movement forward. I don't like the trend toward mods asking players if they want someone replaced; the mod should know if they player is actually vanished (and thus replace them) or just lurking intentionally (and thus should be left alone to their strategy). Players should lynch lurkers if they have a problem with them, as they're not helping the town.

[Mr. Flay]

Re: Night Actions. I confirm that I got their PM in almost all cases ("Choice received." is most common). Most roles don't get anything more than that, but if it's an investigative-type role, I'll usually say something along the lines of "You were unable to perform your duties tonight for some reason.", so they don't think I forgot to send them the result.

So when prodding, should a mod always state something like "Prodding X" in thread and follow it up with "X picked up prod" (unless the player posts post before the mod can post that, of course)? Its then up to the other players to decide if the person is 'strategically lurking', but the mod has informed the players that the player is still keeping up and won't be replaced.

If the players asked for the prod, I usually state that I've done so so they don't think

I

am ignoring the thread. But if I'm prodding based on my own timeline and they haven't noticed, I've stopped mentioning it; again, it's not my job to let players know that someone is lurking. If they haven't noticed... well, they haven't noticed. I used to announce it all the time. And I never say if the person has picked up the prod or not, though I will usually mention if I am looking for a

replacement

and having trouble doing so, as that's mod-related info.

[Mr. Flay]

Well, crap. One of my Newbie Games just ended, and I was all set to post my Modding Spreadsheet, but the wiki doesn't allow .XLS files (probably because of the risks of macros/viruses). If I can find another place to host it, I will, otherwise I can send it individually by email.

[Mr. Flay]

That'd also get rid of my problem where I've only got access to the spreadsheet from work; do they do any sort of rudimentary graphs, or can you export to Excel?

I've got a Google account, I could probably go answer this myself, but it's early...

[Mr. Flay]

Argh. Except that work blocks Gmail, which also apparently means all Google Docs are blocked.

[Mr. Flay]

my prod philosophy has always been: prod when requested, and if there's no response in 48 hours, replace. a response can be by pm (either "i'm deliberately not posting right now" or "i need more time to come up with something, give me a few days and i'll post") or in-thread. don't replace for poor response quality, just for a total lack of response.

Exactly. If the player is around AT ALL and aware of the thread, it's not my job to make them post, it's the town's.

Would that we all could be as perfect as Quagmire. My setup time is more like a year....

[Mr. Flay]

Oh, there's absolutely a point where you begin to overthink/overcomplicate things. One thing I'm not sure I saw mentioned in the guide is to get someone who has NEVER seen the setup (and hence doesn't just 'know' all the things about it that you do) to proofread it and see where there are assumptions, things you've forgotten to communicate, etc. Orbiting does a great job of this for me, and vice versa.

[Mr. Flay]

Tellingly (generally speaking) the more experienced a player is, the more they prefer sparse games.

I'd like to see a broader survey before saying something like that. I might agree with, "people who frequent the Mafia Discussion forum are more likely to prefer sparse games", or "people who are more experienced like sparse games better", but I don't think it's as clear-cut as you say.

I really have no complaints about the rest of your post though, and glad to see someone who is willing to argue in favor of both types.