I guess I should pop in here.

The thread was not started as an April fools joke, nor was it started to be a definitive statement as to why people leave Mudcat. Steve Shaw gave you a great example of how you can create perfect solutions when you control the predicate. Predictably some of you immediately jumped on the old "yanks are just simple and just don't get the subtleties of English language and humor" line. I reject all of that. Jack, with his poem, captured it nicely. Nasty, obstreperous people are just that. It has nothing to do with cultural differences. There is a small group focused on specific people instead of issues, as well as other things. They are dismissive, arrogant and rude. This was started for no other reason than to point that out.

As to rough and tumble debate being stifled, you can stuff that. There is a difference between no holds barred, intense debate about an issue and attacking someone personally because you don't approve of them. I have long held that the BS debates are critical to a folk and blues forum. I remember when there was a move afoot to ban controversial, mostly political threads. I fought it then and will always oppose such moves. Folk music springs from the issues of the times. As long as the intense debate stays focused and doesn't stray off into the personal I don't have a problem with it. Attack ideas, not people.

So don't make too much of this, it's just me pointing out that we have some people around here who delight in being asshats, or whose smug arrogance leaves a nasty odor. I suppose that could be said of all of us at one time or another but there are a half dozen or so who take it to a new level.