This is to all, it regards some clues as to the basis of my interaction with Mr.Zero and what I suspected/still suspect forms the basis of his interaction back at me.
This is a fragment of what I've been holding the posting my overall analysis of Mr.Zero's play so far, specifically I have at last an explanation from Mr.Zero about what he meant with his 'cryptic answer'... He was answering Cat directly, not my redirect of Cat's question, but he says enough of what I asked for. I 'had issue' with trying to quote this normally because the formatting had already been altered, I tried to fix, then just threw up my hands and did it simpler.
Cat: You seem to understand
Imp very well... Might you be getting clarifications, or just frankly status updates with eachother... in a certain thing called Scum chat?
You two seems to be working together. It wasn't very apparent in the previous posts, but because of that post, I've noticed you guys have basically agreed on everything.
Mr.Zero: Totally, and you?
Cat: What do you mean by that? Do you agree that you guys are in Scum chat, Do explain exactly what you mean by "Totally and you?"
Mr.Zero: Sarcasm and redirected the question at you, i should have put [sarcasm][/sarcasm] tags in it as i forgot that it's hard to transfer sarcastic comments over the Internet.
Cat could have easily asked me the same question, and how I interpreted Mr.Zero's answer to mean is very close akin to how I believe I would have answered it. For that matter I wondered about answering it, then decided I didn't need to, and I did want to know Mr.Zero's answer.
My answer would have also mostly disregarded the actual question, which essentially is "are you two in Scumchat?". What's actually being asked, to my interpretation, is why are we agreeing with each other/Why is there any impression of us working together? - after all, there's 4 parts to Cat's statement, and though the actual question is about Scumchat, all other three parts are about our apparent understanding of each other, agreement with each other, and teamwork.
Thus my answer would have approximately been (note it applies as of then): Mr.Zero shows above average activity (typically a post a day, decent length, not just answering but also asking, examining responses, and I see evidence he is thinking and sharing his thoughts - and his expressed reasoning seems sensible and genuine), he's pointing out things that I also see and am concerned about as well as asking questions I find useful, challenging others in ways I would have been happy to, and getting information that I find useful, for example
here,
here, and
here all contain a range of neat interactions and reasoning.
Additionally, he's being reasonable and cooperative in a positive for the game fashion (Example - I invited him to become more specific in his first question to me. He did so, and in a fashion that allowed me to answer it with comfort. D1 was drawing to a close. He was one of the ones to seek extension, the first in fact when I was too unsure if one would be reasonable and so only offered to -support- if anyone else asked for one. What, he didn't help anyone but me - does anyone find that suspicious? Did anyone but me ask him/the group as a whole to?).
Why do we look like we're working together? Why are we agreeing with each other? Why do we appear to understand each other? From my side, I answer that what he has said makes sense. And compared to a large number of other players in the game, his behavior looks far less Scummy than most! He is trying to do the job and putting effort and thought into it. He appears to be working towards drawing other players out and challenging scumminess where he sees it - and so am I. He responded acceptably to my initial interactions to him - quite acceptably in fact. He appeared to accept my initial interactions with him as well.
I'm not done with him. I don't think he's done with me. But as of then, I saw no reason to make him my primary focus, or even a secondary one. You all have surely noticed how I was spending my time instead. And he was active. I don't have to engage him directly and constantly to read him - and when I see something I dislike and have room in my brain to track that too, I can pick it up at any time. None of these posts are ever going away, and even if I never see something that 'looks wrong', I like all of us have an ever-growing host of information to reconsider and then question from.
So what did his 'Totally. You?' response back to Cat mean to me? "Imp and I look like we're working together because we are. We're putting effort into the game and frankly, I can understand at least enough of how she thinks and what she's doing to see value in her play. How about you? Why don't you also look like you're the same team as me and her?"
I have no problem with that answer, as of that time. Far as I know, he might be Scum. Lets pretend he is Scum for the purpose of this question: How am I supposed to determine Scum like him from among choices like Griffinpup, Luke, Kleril, and Superblackcat? The best I can do is the best I can do, and if he's Scum playing to look town, he was doing a great job against the background of a great many other players. When I find a way to catch him, I'll do it. And I appreciate all the help I can get, from him and the rest of the team, from anyone who's actually trying to find Scum, with or without skill.