Tol-in-Gaurhoth XVII: The Saga Continues to Continue quite Continuously

[Aiwendil]

Kath wrote:

Aiwendil, why are you so concerned that we add no more people to list of those with votes? Yes there is a chance that one of the wolves is in there, but it is good to spread the votes rather than bandwagon, because the latter means that anyone who got involved in one is pretty much automatically suspected over the next few Days.

Well, it seems to me that what we want from the voting on the first day is primarily information. Voting records are, I think, the most reliable way of spotting wolves (not that they're all that reliable, mind you, but in my opinion they're the best tool we've got). So it seems to me that on Day 1 we want:

1. Enough names in the pool that we have a good chance of having a wolf among them.
2. Few enough names that the wolves do not have many "safe vote" options and that they cannot lightly go for the ploy of voting for another wolf.

So, by my hasty estimates, the optimal number of names for the first day is, for a group of twenty, about five or six.

That's all rather speculative, of course.