Another thing I've noticed at some open mic nights I've attended is the people who turn up, and then promptly leave as soon as they've sung their song/played their tune.

Now I'm sure in some cases there are mitigating circumstances for this - they have a babysitter to get back for, an early start the next day at work, a sudden attack of performance induced incontinence - but generally speaking, my view would be that if you want to get up and play and expect people to listen to you, the least you could do is extend that courtesy to the other musicians, if only for a little while?

There's a wonderful little song called "Thou Shalt Always Kill" by DJ Dans Le Sac and poet Scroobius Pip which has a great line about just such a practice (it's a little blue so I won't repeat it here, but feel free to google for the lyrics). The song itself won't be to everyone's taste as it's an electronic beat with spoken word over the top, but there's some lovely commentary on the contemporary music scene and life in general (I've included a brief extract for your reading pleasure below):

"Thou shalt not steal if there is direct victim.
Thou shalt not worship pop idols or follow lost prophets.
Thou shalt not take the names of Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, Johnny Hartman, Desmond Decker, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix or Syd Barrett in vain.
Thou shalt not think any male over the age of 30 that plays with a child that is not their own is a paedophile - Some people are just nice. "

Some interesting discuession in this thread, just wanted to add my 2p!

Chris