Agree with phan regarding the general dick measuring getting old.
I will admit to being a gigantic dork when it comes to mafia. I have a lot of free time during the day in between class, and when I play mafia I spend time on the game, so I preface all of my comments with that in mind. I 100% get the people who just play casually, and enjoying voting for friends/ragging on other people etc.
In terms of game strategy though, I think if you want to win as a civ, round 1 is kind of overlooked here. Again, it's fine if you just want to mess around, vote for friends, etc, but from a strict strategy of what's most effective as a civ, you have to start with the idea that everyone has an equal chance of being mafia. Even if you think no one significantly differentiates themselves day 1 (which I disagree with but whatever), given that everyone has an equal chance of being mafia, you try to kill people who you don't think will be assets later. That normally consists of quieter players (because the body of work to analyze won't be as significant), or people you don't think are good, or if you think there's a really loud player who also isn't good and want to remove a distraction. Killing off one of you best players who has an equal chance of being a civ day 1 is counterproductive. Day 3 or 4 vote for them if you still think their bad, but I normally want more than 1 round of talking before trying to kill someone I think could be a huge help later if they're a civ.
I also encourage people to talk as much as possible, even if it's only tangentially related to the game, but that's just a preference mine. Also most games that are played on the suque (since not many games have happened here in the last year) have between 12-20 people (some more, but in general I'd say most are around 15/16). It's easier to deal with a lot of people talking if you have a smaller sample size than if 33 people were doing it (and, again, I'm a mafia dork, so I pay closer attention to it than I should admittedly). I think you get more out of someone just in terms of how they talk in certain situations and what is said than you get through votes (though voting isn't dispositive obviously).
I generally hate the philosophy of just tying people up and letting it go. I understand the arguments but I disagree with them. Doing something like threatening to kill a player gets movement from mafia in OT (but only if they believe you'll follow through and kill said person in OT). I also think the flaw in the argument in favor of the RNG is it approaches things from a perspective that it's a cointoss whether you're right or wrong. By day 6 or 7, I'm taking my chances with my intuition regarding the two players in the tie rather than the RNG. If player x kills player Y instead of player Z, that's worth noting, questioning, maybe given that person some heat, but an automatic kill is counterproductive. If player Z comes up mafia later, then you analyze player X and maybe give him more, or if player X comes up mafia, you maybe look closer at player Z, but there are a lot of reasons why it might be advantageous for a civ to kill someone in the tie (again, this is at the end of OT, or near the end, I'm not advocating instant switches all the time AND I don't do it every time, or even a third of the time, but if I feel strongly about one player positively or negatively, I'm going to move my vote accordingly).
I just think that the style of not killing off quiet players allows mafia to just sit and not post here much, which then leads to an over-reliance on the cop. I'm not comparing the two sites in terms of their worth or how people play, but mafia rarely wins on the suque even if the balance is the same. I think the reason is quiet people die early and fast, and by the end of games, you have mafia left alive who have been talkative out of necessity, and it's way more difficult to hide in plain sight as mafia if you're forced to post more than once a round.
I'm cognizant of the fact that not all people care about mafia that much (rightfully so), but just from a strategy perspective, the more talking the better because you actually have things to look at towards the end game.
sorry for tldr
