I looked at that Robin Hood thread you directed me to, Jim. I don't see any evidence that Sean can't take criticism. Saying he's singing ballads the wrong way is not criticism, it's simply an assertion that there is an strictly defined right way of going about things that Sean (or Steeleye Span or the Young Tradition or Folk Choirs or anyone else who you assert doesn't measure up) falls short of. You are quite within your rights to say you don't like Sean's approach to ballad singing, even that you detest it if you want to: you don't even need to justify your stance - personal taste is all horses for courses. To say it's wrong, though, is elevating critical opinion to some sort of objective absolute.

If there is one true and correct way of doing it, what is it? And what is it measured against? And who is empowered to wield the yardstick? And who measures them? And where does it leave those of us whose tastes in ballad singing are different to or more liberal than that?

On the other thread you approvingly quote Ewan McColl as saying the greatest threat to folk music is that it should fall into the hands of people who neither like nor understand it. That's the sort of soul crushing statement that has the power to drain folk music of every last drop of humanity and joy. I much prefer what Martin Carthy said: words to the effect of: The worst thing you can do to folk music is ignore it...

Folk Against Absolutism. That's an organisation I'd join...