Mooh, there have also been an awful lot of good and caring, if overly sensitive, over-protective, knee-jerking, offense-taking, can't-get-past-it, can't-let-it-go and just-HAVE-to-say-something souls who generously share their thoughts with all the other nice people who may or may not see through the thin layer of 'concern' to the 'I'm better than you, nyah, nyah' stuff that fuels their posting.

People sometimes post out of anger because they feel personally hurt that Mudcat isn't way they think it should. Ask me whether I'm talking about the 'R.I.P.' thread starter or those having a react-o-fest to him/her. The answer would be 'yes'.

It's a losing battle if I thought I or anyone else could influence people to be compassionate and considerate of those who read what they write. The community feel of the place has been gone for a while now, gone the way of the random acts of kindness that happened once in a while, the gatherings in people's homes, the song challenges, the good feelings. Now we've got debates and argument, protestations by the offended, one-upmanship and one-line-at-a-time chat-like droppings where writers once offered works of beauty that perhaps took longer than seconds to create. Most of the writers have gone off to more inspirational places, or they've just gone before they started hanging around in threads like this one. Every once in a while though, they blow back in like a pilgrim wind, wearing threadbare trenchcoats or hand-knit sweaters, and they flash us a bit of the naked soul beneath. For now, that's worth it for me.