Right, I'm going to fail to practise what I preach below, and talk about powers.
1) Useless night actions: do people think town should use them?
I think not. They will make it harder for town to have clear information or understanding of what went on.
I think they should. There's a few ways of gaining alibis for the mafiakill with them (stuff that triggers if you target a particular person, for example). In particular:
In case this was non-rhetorical, I mean the sort of "no impact unless someone else gets involved" roles you can get, like
The Only Pacifist
Once per night you can inform your target of a dead player's name. Action: Inform.
or
Elite MUP
Once per night you can give a copy of this ability to your target's target. Action: Gift.
... looking at it, seems like the generator has been rerigged to not give as many of those abilities. Ho hum.
These abilities are actually confirmable by other players, so can definitely be used to prove you didn't do the mafiakill. If you have an ability like this and don't use it, I will strongly suspect you were using a kill instead.
In fact, since the majority of players seem to receive a night action and many of them leave evidence it may actually be possible to identify the mafiakill user by process of elimination later on in the game. Everyone should definitely be using their abilities.
2) Regarding census takers: if someone can get a list of all the roles in play, should they post it at once?
I don't see why not. Knowing about a chaotic or disruptive role will benefit town more than scum. And town will benefit more from knowing what might have happened on a certain night.
I'd say the answer is no, for two reasons.
1. Revealing the list gives the mafia a much better idea of what they have to avoid and what lies they can safely make.
2. The
threat of a role list existing should discourage the mafia from falseclaiming even if there isn't actually anyone who can generate a role list in the game. If we all agree that someone with a role list should claim immediately then the absence of a claim would prove that no-one in the game has that ability, meaning the scum could falseclaim freely. I'd rather leave it ambiguous until we reach what is likely to be a "lynch mafia or lose" situation.