I have only bought about 6 CDs in 97, two semi-pro's concerts, and no music books. I spend my music money at song circles and jams. Admittedly, I already have a reasonable collection of recordings and songbooks. But things have never felt so tight.

If it was much easier to connect to Mudcat, there would be three or four times as many posts and threads to read. I think that it might be overwelming for the die-hard regular readers, the way the USENET folk SIGs often seem overwelming.

If people want to connect to contact the database, there *ARE* mirror sites available, such as the "yet another digital tradition page".

I have no idea. Maybe Dick is already putting in $60,000 worth of expertise into Mudcat eash year. But $18,000? a year for maintenance still seems a bit steep for to me. I've only noticed about 25 regular forum users. That'd be what, US$700 a year each? That's way over half of my entire year's music budget. Mudcat is great, but it's not worth that much to me right now.