I find it quite interesting that those who are so quick to come to the defense of this website are talking about the forum, which I know is of value to them as their online "community". I don't doubt for a second that is the case for the majority of people regularly posting to the forum.

Where I disagree with you is on what I value here, which is the Digital Tradition, NOT THE FORUM. The reason I don't value the forum is because a decision was made (apparently quite some time ago) to allow the forum to address any topic under the sun, rather than just folk and blues music. I can go to a million chat sites on line, but there is only one Digital Tradition--the resource which initially draws everyone to this site. I also know that the Digital Tradition is work that was done by Dick and Susan, not Max.

I would have much preferred that when the Digital Tradition came to be housed at this website, that an agreement had been made to reserve the main discussion forum for on-topic discussions of the music. Those of us who come here looking ONLY for information in the DT and the discussion forum about music have had Max and the "Mudcat regulars" thumb their noses at us and tell us, essentially (or literally in some members' cases) to FUCK OFF.

Now, those attitudes do not contribute a thing to the online folk and blues music community. Maybe that is because people here wish to preserve their own insular community, rather than serve the needs of the greater online community, and the music itself.

The only thing of true, lasting value here to the folk and blues music world is the Digital Tradition. The standard of maintenance of the Digital Tradition has been appallingly low, and people here seem to be JUST FINE with those low standards, because the forum feeds their online addiction needs.

That there has been this embarrassment of folk and blues music riches squandered doesn't seem to be a matter of concern to the regulars here. But then, most the regulars don't seem to care near as much about the music as they care about maintaining the ability to exploit the Digital Tradition to keep their own little chat forum for internet junkies going strong.