1. As I said, Mafia is all about mind-games and intimidation. It's a pretty embarrasing backstory, and I didn't want people to know that I didn't have any experience, since it would pretty much discredit anything that I said.
2. This is probably more complicated than you think. What really happened here, was that Wonk was making comments about "new and improved" radish (..followed by my rant post, apologies, repeat..) and what I said about that making me "respect the points he was making less" was true, because I felt sure that he was a Mafia who was trying to get an easy point on a "weak" player. However, it was deeper than this - I think he must have hit a nerve, or something - because I suddenly became focussed on finding ways to prove myself a better player than him. Whenever he got accused of something, I thought of ways that I'd try and get out of the situation, and I posted them "in Wonk's defence". I can't believe that I did it, but it made me feel better at the time.