Happy Anniversary, mafiascum

[mith]

Half a lifetime of great memories. Miss you bud.

Miss you too, Pooky; how's the fam?

[schadd_]

how old is your kid (kids?)

[PookyTheMagicalBear]

Family is great ^_^ - Life goes by too fast sometimes friendo.(doesn't it always? - blink and you miss it all)

I wanted to visit Thesp in Dallas but ended up catching Covid(lol) before I got to ask him if he wanted to hang out(is it bad i think he lives in dallas but he might not? hopefully next time I won't catch covid randomly and we can hang out)

Hoping to see you at an oldschool meetup sometime.

Still remember that all nighter we pulled playing dominion - helluva time - we'll have to run that back eventually - I don't even remember who won because sleep deprivation.

[D3f3nd3r]

how old is your kid (kids?)

I think there were two. I hope

Panzer's two least favorite people

Mith's kids are doing well!

[catboi]

What's your favorite sudoku variant?

[mith]

how old is your kid (kids?)

Luke is 6 now, and Zoe is 3.

I wanted to visit Thesp in Dallas but ended up catching Covid(lol) before I got to ask him if he wanted to hang out(is it bad i think he lives in dallas but he might not? hopefully next time I won't catch covid randomly and we can hang out)

He's in the Austin area, actually. We play quite a bit of Race for the Galaxy and Shards of Infinity via iPhone app. We're actually in McKinney (two suburbs north of where we were, outskirts of DFW) now but I'm too lazy to change my profile.

What's your favorite sudoku variant?

I just got asked something close to this on the sudoku discord: My favorite to *solve* is either killer or kropki (pairs). My favorite to *set* is... arrow or classic? Hard to answer, it changes all the time.

For those who aren't aware, one of the things I have gotten into seriously over the pandemic is sudoku:

[mith]

how old is your kid (kids?)

I think there were two. I hope

Panzer's two least favorite people

Mith's kids are doing well!

They are! Luke is really thriving with kindergarten, after not being around other kids much for a while. And Zoe is the happiest person in the world 99% of the time. She has taken to wearing her backpack and mask at home for extended periods of time so she can practice going to school just like her big brother.

[catboi]

favorite moment in a mafia game? (it's okay if nothing comes to mind! but I figure most people have a story they like sharing)

[Pink Ball]

For those who aren't aware, one of the things I have gotten into seriously over the pandemic is sudoku:

Happened to me too! Simon got me hooked, now I play a killer sudoku everyday (bathroom breaks turned into sudoku breaks basically).

Any app you recommend? The one I use is good, but it's not challenging enough now.

[Ythan]

I've just recently picked sudoku up again out of the blue weird.

[Nero Cain]

This thread is now an AmA (Ask mith Anything). Go.

What was your motivation for making this site?

[mith]

favorite moment in a mafia game? (it's okay if nothing comes to mind! but I figure most people have a story they like sharing)

That's a pretty easy one. It's the time I sorta made MeMe cry. For the newer users, MeMe was an early presence on the site, and in fact the first List Mod. She and her family hosted a few meetups over the years.

This was at one of the meetups, back in the days of "lol Jester is a funny role". The setup had a Jester, some number of Mafia, and... maybe not much else, I don't remember and it isn't relevant. Not sure who was modding, either.

Day 1, and Atticus (MeMe's younger son) was acting incredibly suspicious. There was a lot of talk about him possibly being the Jester, but also we figured he could be Mafia trying to make us think he was the Jester so we wouldn't vote for him. So we were discussing "forcing" the Mafia to sort it out for us: either they kill Atticus for us at night, or we assume he's Mafia and vote him out the next day. Foolproof, right?

Being a bit cheeky, at the conclusion of this discussion I said loudly something along the lines of "Mafia, you understand the plan, right?", to which MeMe immediately responded "Yes". Boom, got'em.

It soon became clear that MeMe was not actually Mafia falling for the dumbest trick ever; at some point during our interrogation she became visibly upset by the whole thing, so either she was innocent, or the Jester pulling some next level mind games, or Mafia immediately winning a Scummy for crying on cue after making a slip. So I started to ease the pressure off, having convinced myself she was likely innocent.

Our attention turned to Dirge (MeMe's husband), who IIRC wasn't letting go of the "MeMe gave herself away" thing (it may have been something else that was suspect). With Day 1 having lasted ages at this point, he was quickly voted up... and revealed to be the Jester. (Atticus was, in fact, Mafia.)

[mith]

Happened to me too! Simon got me hooked, now I play a killer sudoku everyday (bathroom breaks turned into sudoku breaks basically).

Any app you recommend? The one I use is good, but it's not challenging enough now.

I guess it's not clear if you don't know me elsewhere, but I'm the one who set that particular puzzle.

When I solve, it's mostly puzzles on the CTC Fan Server (discord). I spend way more time setting and theorizing than I do solving, though. Even when I do solve, most of it is testing for GAS (Genuinely Approachable Sudoku), as the setters test each others' puzzles. (I do have a couple of the CTC apps though - Classic and Sandwich.)

If anyone wants to go really in depth with advanced sudoku techniques, I've been doing a youtube series with rangsk (who has also featured on CTC, but has his own channel mostly doing live solving streams): Link (I don't really recommend starting from episode 1 here if you've never solved much sudoku! rangsk has done a "Learn to Love Sudoku" series which explains some simpler techniques.)

[AGar]

Hi mith!

20 years, christ on a bike.

[mith]

This thread is now an AmA (Ask mith Anything). Go.

What was your motivation for making this site?

World domination

At the time I started the site, Mafia had basically taken over the game forum over on the Grey Labyrinth. I had also introduced Mafia to a couple other forums. It seemed like a good time to have a dedicated site and bring some of those people together, though early on the site heavily skewed toward GLers. I felt a bit of responsibility for being the driving force behind a dedicated site, having introduced the game to the GL in the first place. (And probably figured someone else doing it might screw everything up, or stick ads everywhere, or whatever.)

It was also a good way teach myself some things; I probably imagined at the time that I would spend more time making websites than I actually ended up doing. I always had plans for various automation improvements, and more of a "live" gaming experience, that never really went anywhere. 2002 was the year I graduated university, and a time for a lot of big life changes. And I wasn't really ever interested in trying to make money doing this, so it often had to take a backseat to real life.

I have been fortunate to have a ton of positive experiences with online communities. An interest in puzzles and math led to the GL, which played a huge role in my social life and even my decision to move to England. The GL led to mafiascum, and some of the people I would count among my closest friends I met here. Those friends and the various mafiascum meetups I was able to attend led to the board game community, which is where I met a number of local friends and gaming groups; there's a good chance I would have moved elsewhere and never met my wife if not for that.

All that said, did I have any idea about any of that when I started the site? No (well, other than the England stuff, but that's a whole other story); I just spent a ton of time playing Mafia and wanted a dedicated place to do it. ~shrug~

[Pink Ball]

Happened to me too! Simon got me hooked, now I play a killer sudoku everyday (bathroom breaks turned into sudoku breaks basically).

Any app you recommend? The one I use is good, but it's not challenging enough now.

I guess it's not clear if you don't know me elsewhere, but I'm the one who set that particular puzzle.

When I solve, it's mostly puzzles on the CTC Fan Server (discord). I spend way more time setting and theorizing than I do solving, though. Even when I do solve, most of it is testing for GAS (Genuinely Approachable Sudoku), as the setters test each others' puzzles. (I do have a couple of the CTC apps though - Classic and Sandwich.)

If anyone wants to go really in depth with advanced sudoku techniques, I've been doing a youtube series with rangsk (who has also featured on CTC, but has his own channel mostly doing live solving streams): Link (I don't really recommend starting from episode 1 here if you've never solved much sudoku! rangsk has done a "Learn to Love Sudoku" series which explains some simpler techniques.)

Whaaaaaaat I remember doing that particular sudoku when the video came out and got the Cream reference too! mith I think I've dedicated too much time on things that you've done, you don't have a cooking show do you?

[Cook]

(well, other than the England stuff, but that's a whole other story); I just spent a ton of time playing Mafia and wanted a dedicated place to do it. ~shrug~

if it please you, regale us with this tale!

[RadiantCowbells]

pog

[RH9]

I just spent a ton of time playing Mafia and wanted a dedicated place to do it.

That's so nice of you, mith.

[DeasVail]

Here to contribute to the goal of having as many different join years as possible post in this thread~

[Kilgamayan]

Wow, I remember feeling like this website had been around since the dawn of time when I made an account. Hard to believe it has now existed for roughly 60% of the website's life.

Here to contribute to the goal of having as many different join years as possible post in this thread~

2010 solidarity!

[lendunistus]

hi

[Isis]

Should I log into popsofctown to add 08

[AniX]

2002: Mith
2003: AniX, PookyTheMagicalBear
2004:
2005:
2006:
2007:
2008:
2009: Ythan, Nero Cain, AGar
2010: implosion, Kilgamayan
2011: DeasVail
2012: D3f3nd3r
2013: MathBlade, catboi, RadiantCowbells
2014:
2015: Davsto, Ircher, Radical Rat
2016: MURDERCAT, schadd_
2017:
2018: Irrelephant11, Pink Ball
2019: NorwegianboyEE, RH9, Menalque
2020: Bell, Isis, Noraa, Gypyx, Cook, lendunistus
2021: Greeting
2022:

[AniX]

We gotta get those early dates up.