Alright, zeek, that's fine -- I'll drop it for now. Maybe I am giving you a harder time than everyone else. I'm willing to see how things play out and keep an open mind. But I will not let something go if I truly believe I'm onto something. I take the chance that I'm wrong, but I'd feel worse if I let it go and it turns out I was right.
And it appears there are just some cultural differences, but that said, when you refer to "this site", there really are different subcultures mixed into the members of this site because there are people from the STV and LP days, there are others from PA (a music forum) that I brought over, and all sorts of places, so there may not be an overarching site culture when it comes to what is suspicious with regards to certain things. I PERSONALLY think saying "I'm a civ" to prove that you're a civ with an LD role breaks the game, and this gets into Dana's question...
Dana, if the LD could fact check "I'm a civ", then every civvie could just say "I'm a civ", the baddies would be forced to say so as well, and it essentially breaks the game. In fact, I almost never see LD roles anymore because everyone would just come right out of the gate and say "I'm a civ" or "I have BTSC" and, personally, I hate LD roles with a passion, regardless of alignment. I think people abuse them too often and I just don't like their mechanic. But that's just my POV.
Personally, I feel a civvie doesn't need to go around convincing everyone that they're civ by exclaiming it as such, but that's more of the "newer" view and I realize many old timer players like Sorsha will say the same thing zeek just said, so I'm willing to chalk it up to a difference in perspective, but I can't help that it pings the crap out of me every time nonetheless. A civvie doesn't need to prove to him or herself or anyone else that they've civ by saying "I'm a civ" regardless of the existence of an LD role, they do it through their actions.
Also, regarding this site's town v. mafia win ratio, it's true that historically mafia or independents have won most of the full games so far, but for speed games if I recall correctly it's closer to 50/50, or at least 40/60. There are varying theories as to why mafia have won mostly in full games so far, such as inactive civvies, easily manipulated civvies, overpowered baddie teams, too much confusion in the game setup which led to a baddie advantage, etc. I personally don't feel there have been any particularly glaring issues with overpowering, and I feel the explanation is likely a case by case scenario.
And lastly, zeek, I hope you feel incredibly welcome here, despite my initial steamrolling against you -- it's mafia, it's not personal. I don't intend to make you feel uncomfortable or unwelcome, but at the same time I don't want to give newcomers a pass necessarily if I think they're behaving suspiciously. But I realize how it feels to be railroaded (I get lynched ALL the time, and sometimes early, especially in full games, so I know how it feels), so I'm willing to try to approach more rationally. I don't want to keep harping on this unnecessarily. But I will vote however I see fit, and I don't expect anyone else to follow me, because I certainly have not built any sort of case on zeek being bad. Anyone who tries to piggyback off of that as an easy lynch surely will get my eye because I've not argued that. I'm actually glad to see someone else who apparently likes to push discussion because we need more players like that, IMO.

Now, see you folks later!