Thanks for those clarifications Geoff and John. But I am none the wiser - which is my whole point.

What is the difference between an elf and a clone? Is there any?

I've never seen anyone apart from Joe be routinely identified as a Mudcat Official.

I'm not, myself, in favour of self-editing facilities. It can make a mess of a thread and lead to sloppiness. Knowing you can't edit makes one a bit more careful - and who cares about the odd typo (as a major dyslexic my posts are full of missing and duplicated words, but I just think it makes me look cute)!

If you drop a bollock you can always post a correction straight after - it's not a problem.

And if there are invisible people who can fix any serious errors that's all to the good. (Though if unidentified clones tamper with threads for personal reasons that's not, obviously).

And it's good to be able to contact Joe by email too- as I often have.

But none of these address my point; that you need a number of named 'prefects' in a forum like this, not just one.

Mods/clones/elves/beavers/mudlarks - whatever you want to call them, they need to be willing to speak out as themselves but from a position of known authority. Yes, they will make occasional mistakes, but this will be in a spirit of transparency.

It is the lack of this - and all that flows from it, including the problems I've mentioned above an often in toehr threads over the years - that prevents me from joining Mudcat, and causes me to continue to agitate for change, in public as well as in private to Joe as he would prefer.

Call me old-fashioned, but i like my policemen to wear a uniform, and a big friendly smile

Tom (Tom the Copper's son)