Sandman- thanks for your concern and offer of support, but I have been in enough folk clubs & pubs to be able to handle a bit of noise. I agree of course that respect is due to any performer doing his/her best, but a reaction to poor performance or irrelevant/unnecessary intros (I've heard this in the form of a complete advance narrative of 'Matty Groves' or similar) this can produce a murmur progressing to serious noise.
Do you mean that any reaction to this is not allowed? -surely some kind of protest could be justified, although I certainly wouldn't be part of it, and its not what I'm saying.
   The real world is that you can't please everyone, and simply putting up with poor behavior FROM PERFORMERS especially in an 'entry charge' situation is hardly the way forward.
   We're a very tolerant crowd mainly, and that's to our credit, but there's a balance to be struck, and we need to be sensitive to our surroundings. There have been many instances of groups of folkies finding a nice old pub, taking it over and then getting annoyed when the locals chat in the background- that's different to the same crowd finding an empty room & doing the same thing- they'd have a case to ask new arrivals to 'show respect'
I think we agree really, it's about respect BUT that needs to be earned....