Some folks need and value their privacy much more than others, kendall. Others are independant spirits, reluctant to join groups of any kind. Still others are total newbies to the internet with big privacy concerns.

I, for one, understand all this very well. Little Hawk told me aobut this site just a couple weeks after I bought my first computer, when I had absolutely no experience online. Mudcat was the first website I'd ever been on for more than a minute or two. And I would never have joined, were it not for a few months of encouragement and constant prodding from certain long-term and well-meaning 'Catters (probably intended to save me the suspicion / cold-shoulder treatment often directed at anonymous GUEST posters here)