The problems with Mudcat going down hill has nothing to do with guests.

The decline of the Cat has everything to do with the fact that Max decided a long time ago he wanted a clubhouse for his friends more than he wanted to provide a quality forum for the exchange of high quality information (like Musical Traditions level), so the forum became a BS paradise for flamers and trolls.

But even worse, the owners of the DigiTrad database squandered the resource, by refusing to allow the truly knowledgeable people who volunteered to help with organizing the database to do anything. Blow those people off for long enough, and pretty soon the volunteers quit offering. They should have yanked the database away from Max a long time ago, and turned it over to someone who could have done something with it.

IMNSHO.