"One thing I do agree with. It isn't going to change, as long as Max owns the server, and the current crop of clones remain in charge. To be sure, there is no other online folk music forum I have encountered that has this level of ill will towards the people who use the forum, either occassionally or regularly."

It's not important who said that but its message seems elemental. From the very early years of school, and even before that, with one's own siblings, we all have to learn to live with obvious limits- so, if you know it's not going to change, you also know that your own attitude is the only thing you can change about it.

Secondly, the 'ill will' of the people on the Mudcat seems almost entirely a component of SOME Guests and some others who perceive a problem on the Mudcat that they can't live with - or without. Almost every Mudcatter I have 'met' much prefers things to be enlightening, funny, friendly, supportive, and even loving. Acrimony and Amity are not comfortable bedmates. As they say, a 'soft answer turneth away wrath'. Besides it bugs the bejeebers out of them.