Hey y'all. As I'm sure you all are aware, the term we have used since the beginning of mafia here on the realms for the elimination of a player from the game via voting during the day has been lynching. Now, as I'm sure you are also all aware, recent events in the world have given many of us good reason to examine the language we use and what it can mean to others.

The term Lynching I have personal found to be problematic as I have continued to educate myself on history and it clearly has a history of racial violence. Doing research into roles for the game I am going to run soon, I have also discovered many communities that play Mafia/Werewolf around the internet have already stopped using the term.

Reading Mafia Scum, I see that all instances of the term lynch are now "eliminate" other than one place I could find where it explains why the term is no longer used. I'm not sure I am a big fan of using eliminate, but I am in favor of something being done to remove this problematic term from our games. I have talked with K-Ness already and he has had similar thoughts to mine.

I know we haven't had much growth recently, but it would be nice to have more people join our community. To facilitate that, we should try to be as inclusive as possible, and I think something that goes along with that is examining the language we use. I understand that this would be a difficult transition at first due to how ingrained it is to our culture, but I think it is something small that would make everyone more comfortable in the long run.

Anyways, thoughts?

Both MafiatheSyndicate and MafiaUniverse have officially stopped using the term.

"Chop" and "yeet" have been thrown around as terms to replace it, along with the aforementioned "eliminate."

I would be fine with using an alternative. I did use "eliminate" most of the time in my Spider-Verse game, although that was primarily because I didn't want to use the word "kill" to describe thematically non-lethal methods of characters being defeated. I think it's a more general word that doesn't have as much baggage.

100% on board. I too felt uncomfortable with the term upon coming back to the community.

I'd suggest "execute."

I am on board with eliminating the word lynch, but I'm not a fan of eliminate. Not sure what to suggest otherwise. "Test" ould be hilarious, but probably only at first. "Exile"? As in like, vote off the island?

Eliminate sounds far less violent.

I do agree that the term lynch is problematic.

Huh, something I too have been wary about. Agreed that it should be retired.

My only... hesistancy?... Is that in the game, we technically ARE a Lynch-Mob. We are putting someone to death as a faceless group, often on slim or manufactured evidence.

I'm fine with trying to get away from it. As long as players don't use it as an excuse to "Eliminate" someone because they used a Lynch or Curbstomp when "we don't do that here"

The only objection I have to "eliminate" is that there are wincons commonly worded like "eliminate all threats to the town" or what have you and while I'm sure things are still clear, I don't like using a word to mechanically mean two things.

"Vote out" is a bit wordy. "Chop" I like a lot because it calls to mind the french revolution instead of some bad times in America. "Yeet" I also like but I think it's very...modern. And idk if that word stays in our lexicon and doesn't look stupid in 5 years. "Exile" works pretty well imo.

There's always (as MU and MTS are doing) just not using the term lynch and letting everyone just say whatever term they like in its place until there becomes a greater internetwide consensus on what a good replacement term should be.

This is why I'm not a fan of eliminate because I do find it confusing even if I can understand if everyone used it consistantly, i kind of doubt that would happen anytime soon.

Anyways, i'm glad to see I'm not the only one and am glad that I brought this up.

I'm a fan of simply: vote: player

Which I think I've been using recently anyway because of my feelings towards the word lynch.

How is that better? Far far more people were killed in the French Revolution. If we think it's bad form for our silly internet games to evoke historical atrocities, then we probably shouldn't intentionally evoke the guillotine.

"Vote out" is good. "Exile" is good. JoH makes a good point about "eliminate" having multiple meanings. If we try to use "yeet" I will literally quit. I think "mob" as a verb has some potential, since the idea of the game is that the town forms a lynch mob. "Hang" would work but some might argue it has similar connotations. "Execute" I think connotes too much law and order that doesn't fit the theme. "Jump" wouldn't be the worst. "Attack" might be a good choice, it also gives the mod flexibility to write the ending depending on if they want the "attacks" to be lethal or not. "String up" is another.

Or we could just stick with Vote: Player . That seems to be what everyone has been doing for years.

Well, some things require more than that. Like, just off the top of my head, how would you word a Jester's win con of winning when they are killed via voting? There are things that require there to be a term for being killed via voting and how it is different from a nightkill.

Out of the terms put forward so far, I am most in favor of Exile personally.

I think the difference between "chop" and "lynch" would the racial connotations with lynch.

I think vote: player might be the most natural for the time being. Roles can be reworded fairly easily I would think.