You think this raucous chorus of welcome and advice might have put Ellen of Cardiff off? I see she doesn't seem to have back...

Mudcat's not so different from any informal open gathering. Some people you can meet up with and pass the time with for years without knowing the first thing about them outside of what tunes they play perhaps and what they like to drink. Fair enough, they can still be good company.

It'd be fun if more people stuck their pictures in the rogues gallery. They could wear masks if they wanted to keep anonymous. (And I think it'd be good if, where people had posted pictures, there'd be a link to the pictures at the head of their posts, unless they preferred not to have that. I think that would serve to encourage more people to stick up pictures too.)