Trust Tell

A Trust Tell is a specialized behavior a player may use to "prove" their alignment in any arbitrary game via a personal meta argument. For instance, a player may promise that they are Town if and only if they actually are Town in a game, and will use that self-imposed rule when they draw Town as an argument to confirm their alignment whenever they see fit.

The purpose of a trust tell is not to break it at some point in the future and coast on it to win. It's far more effective to keep it up indefinitely, as it will "prove" the player's alignment in game after game.

Definition

A trust tell fits both of the following criteria:

• The player insists that they only do this behavior as a certain alignment, and never as any other alignment.
• The player, over the course of multiple games, only does this behavior as a certain alignment, and never as any other alignment.

The first criterion on its own may be a lie, but may still be punishable as a trust tell in the making, depending on the severity (see also the rule on promises).

The second criterion is a meta tell. There is a blurry line at a player knowing that they only perform some behavior as a given alignment and the player actively advertising it for personal gain - typically this activity is punishable when the latter occurs.

In addition, trust tells often degrade your chances of winning as one alignment (usually scum) for an increased chance of winning as another alignment (usually town). This plays against a person's duty to try to win equally as any alignment. So the player is not playing to the best of their ability always. Thus they are often playing against their Win Condition which is punishable in its own right.

Punishment

Trust tells are banned sitewide at mafiascum.net for these reasons:

• They constitute an out-of-game influence in the game. For instance, the red text of truth (i.e. all text in red is guaranteed to be true to the player's knowledge) is a construct outside the game used for personal meta purposes.
• They degrade the quality of the game and are tedious to deal with. For instance, establishing a meta of always self-hammering when placed at L-1 as scum means that the optimal play is to always run that player to L-1 at the start of every game.

Players found to use trust tells will be forcibly replaced and banned from signing up for new games for a length of time.

Why Trust Tells Are Dumb

Bob is scum and has a trust tell he always uses as town. John is town.

John says: Hey bob are you town? If so do your trust tell, so I know to lynch the other guy in lylo, so town will win

Bob has inner mental quarrel. Does he lie to win as scum or keep his trust tell to keep winning as town because he likes being town. Bob does not post for a few days due to this mental quarrel. John lynches Bob for the win. Bob should have lied, but could not as he foolishly impeded his own play. Everyone will use John's tactic to out Bob's alignment day 1 in future games. Bob will get lynched day 1 as scum always for the rest of his mafia career. Bob will be night killed night 1 of every game he is town since scum won't be able to get rid of him otherwise. Have fun being around for day 1 only, in all your future games, Bob. You won't get the chance to have fun outside that day. Thanks for ruining the game for us, but mostly ruining it for yourself