My point is summed up in the thought,"If you keep on doing whAT YOU'VE ALWAYS DONE , you keep on getting what you've always got."

The result of our 'moderators' doing what they have always done (imposing restrictions, publicly judging their worth, insulting posters calling them names, permitting others to indulge in this and being seen to generally inhibit posting except from the very brave or the very foolish) - is the following for the record statement. Whatever the rest of us think - it is clear from this - that 'they' don't like the result. But all 'they' can think of - is more of the same. I suggest that it is not only up to 'them' but up to all our forum.

And despite our best efforts, Mudcat is no longer a pleasant place to hang out and goof off or have a good discussion. So, I think something has to be done. Ebbie's suggestion about putting Secret Santa in the music section is a very simple answer to one major objection I had to members-only BS posting - duh, why didn't I think of that?

So, short of members-only posting, what can we do to bring peace to this place? I'd rather have another solution, but I haven't been able to think of one.
-Joe Offer

I am not sure if I can see myself as much of a gift to our forum so I am sure that a good few others would struggle with that concept. But the issue is bigger than any one individual poster or 'moderator'.

For I feel we have limited opportunities in our lives and can ill afford to casually pass any of them up without at least putting up a bit of a struggle.

And I really think that Max has provided us with a gift - in the shape of our forum. Perhaps that statement is something that most of us can at least agree on as a starting point?

A few have never seemed to see the reality of this gift. Seeing the open invitation for the public's contributions only as presenting problems that can only be solved - and at the very slightest of excuses - by imposing limitations and yet further limiting our forum to something they feel they can shape and control. And not to be seen to be doing this openly - but to impose it secretly, inconsistently and anonymously.

This divisive approach is less 'moderation' than it is 'strangulation'. But whatever it is - it appears to have failed to achieve what its chief proponent requires for it.

So for a start - perhaps others can now be allowed to discuss the issue and make some positive suggestions in this thread and elswhere - as to how - in the words of the current Chief of the Mudcat Editing team "to bring peace to this place"?