PoppaGator, you bring up a good question - was there a Mudcat before it joined with the Digital Tradition and opened the folk music discussion forum on October 1, 1996? From some of the early hieroglyphs from the history of Mudcat, one might might be led to believe in the pre-existence of a Blues Mudcat, but I have found no solid evidence.
The best I can do is a Wayback Machine Search under Mudcat's previous URL, deltablues.com - and it goes back only to December, 1996.
I've always meant to ask Max that, but I never think of it when I see him.

Oh, and one word about Susan of DT, who is indeed an historic character: DigiTrad-blurb.cfm, the Official History of the Digital Tradition, states that Susan was one of the two original sources of the lyrics for the Digital Tradition. As such, it may be said that she predates even the sainted Dick Greenhaus. This might make one think that Susan is Really, Really, Old - but rumor has it that she is the Exact Same Age as Joe Offer. Which is quite young, actually.....

-Joe-