I keep returning to this thread to see if commenters focus on any portion of Will Fly's original comment beyond this portion of the 4th paragraph "I look at them [post below the BS line] myself from time to time and consider many of them to be a waste of space, what with personal insults and the endless circuitous arguments coupled with the seeming impossibility of anyone ever changing their minds or engaging in any kind of agreement. It seems to me that many members, including particularly those I've called the Old Guard have got fed up with the same feuding few accusing endlessly accusing each other of ignorance, lying, blah, blah and blah"...
end of quote

That portion continued in the last paragraph: "So where will we all be in ten years' time - assuming we're still here - and what will Mudcat look like as the membership subtly changes? Was it all very "cosy" ten years ago - cosier and friendlier and more of a community than now - and, that's the case, will it be even less friendly and cosier in the future?"
-snip-
It occurs to me that I didn't focus on the "endless circuitous arguments" portions of that comment because I reached the conclusion some time ago that without more moderation that is what happens to many Mudcat discussion threads. And I also reached the conclusion some time ago that -in large part because Max doesn't want more moderation here, it's not gonna happen.

It also occurs to me that I hoped that more people would focus on the portion of Will's original post that asked what will Mudcat look in ten years, because I wanted that discussion to lead to talking about something that I've been interested in for some time- increasing the field of people interested in folkloric approaches to music who want to engage in the presentation, study, and discussion of that music on Mudcat. Of course, embedded in that hope was the desire to identify more People of Color who would regularly post on Mudcat.

But then it occurs to me that if there's no increased moderation (and if that increased moderation isn't fair and consistent across the board) what would stop an increased pool of people who would regularly post on Mudcat from engaging in the same or other forms of circuitous exchanges and/or accusations and thus (I believe) turning off and turning away other potential commenters?

I'm not disregarding that (I think) highly negative possibility. However, I'm still wondering if anyone else who is reading this discussion thread want there to be an increased number of people who would regularly post about folkloric music topics on Mudcat? And, if so, how could this discussion forum attract probably younger, and possibly more racially & ethnically diverse regular commenters?