On the Issue of Villiage Idiots (VI's)

[Primate]

-Is it in the best interests of the town to lynch a VI because he/she seems scummy as most VI's do?

-Is "Don't lynch him, he's just a newbie" a valid defense?

-How should scum players deal with the situation? (because this is an all-purpose theory thread) Is it better to bus the VI, defend him, or just sit back and watch?

-How much of analyzing a VI lynch comes down to WIFOM?

-Are there any effective strategies to get VI's to improve their behavior? Is there any way to deal with the situation so that they don't become bitter regarding Mafia

Depends whether he is genuinely scum or not, yes, depends on the situation, as little as you can manage.

Ask them what they find scummy, then work consistency out from there. If they find the wrong things scummy, they can easily still be consistent to their own mind, if you get me. That's what you should check for.

[Primate]

Depends whether he is genuinely scum or not, yes, depends on the situation

But thats where the real problem lies (and I probably should have mentioned this in the OP) VI's are so incomprehensible that you never can tell if they're really bad scum or just really bad town.

Are there any good scumtells when looking at a really bad player?

No player is really unreadable, no matter how much they look it.

Most players that are new/dumb have unique views of what constitutes being scummy though, and the bizarre train of thought leads on from this or is extra. Just try to figure out why they're thinking what they're thinking, and don't just judge them on what they actually say.

Another piece of advice is to not put much faith in your first opinion of them. Because you can't apply traditional models to them, you may have to spend a fair bit more time than normal questioning them just to get any idea at all.