Ok, sorry if so, but I'm really not sure there are too many sacred cows on this site. Maybe there is some community protection around people (i.e. friends) who are known users of Mudcat - but that's only natural.

I suspect what does happen is that people interested (one way or another) in an act or issue are drawn to threads with that in the title, so the discussion quickly becomes cow-selective, if you see what I mean.

As most people prefer saying nice things to saying bad things in public, those with a negative opinion are liable to find themselves in a minority. That's only natural too. If you go on TalkAwhile or the Show of Hands forum you'll certainly find yourself in a BIG minority if you're negative about the Fairports or the Tousled Trio.

That said, I agree that voicing a negative opinion can be misconstrued to mean other negatives, which is precisely why I try never to do so. If I do, I try to anticipate all the the potential misunderstandings and deal with them pre-emptively in my post. Yes it makes my posts wordy, time-consuming to write and it makes me look pompous and pedantic at times, but hey ho. (I'm not like that in person, am I kids? )

Tomsk