"if value is to be judged by the process rather than the merits or faults of a song,then we would end up saying that is not a folk songbecause there are very few versions and it has not been processed song."

Dick, there lies the root of our disagreement. You seem to think that the term "folk song" is somehow a judgement on a song's quality. It's not, and neither I nor any of the others arguing for it are using it in that way. The definition of a "folk song" is simply one which has passed through a particular creative process - that's all. Folk songs still stand to be judged on their merits and faults just as much as any other type of song.

The various tunes you mention are all in the repertoire of folk musicians. That does not necessarily make them "folk tunes" in the technical sense, but so what? No is claiming that a folk singer or musician (whether "revival" or "source") is allowed to perform only traditional material. However, I strongly suspect that many of the tunes you mention are already undergoing variation as they get passed around in sessions.

I describe myself as a "folk singer" because I sing folk songs ie traditional songs. I don't consider that restricts me to singing only folk songs, and I will happily sing any song which takes my fancy, and if I feel it sits comfortably alongside the traditional songs I will include it in my performing repertoire. I don't regard the songs by Richard Thompson or Bob Dylan, for example, as "folk songs", they are "Richard Thompson songs" or "Dylan songs". I certainly don't take the view that because I am a folk singer, that makes everything I perform "folk".

What I don't understand is your apparent need to justify performing other songs by redefining them as "folk songs". On the one hand, it's unnecessary, on the other it dilutes a perfectly good, and useful, technical term.

"Folk song" is a jargon term. Specialists in any field need a more precise vocabulary when discussing their subject than does the population at large - that is jargon. There is no conflict between "folk song" having one meaning in general conversation and another, more specific, meaning among specialists. What is disappointing is that on a forum like this one would expect us all to be specialists and capable of using and understanding the jargon sense. However, it appears that is not the case and that the technical usage is now lost to us.