"Could you please say a word about when we might expect your activities to occur-- is there a particular day and time you plan to be "open," in Mudcat-time terms-- so we can plan our own schedules and have our music, etc. handy?

No future plans. The Mudcat Song Circle was started whenever an admin decided to open it and closed when there was no one left willing to continue admin duties or perhaps when the room emptied. A typical start time would be 6:00pm but there were no hard and fast rules - bear in mind the room had admins in North America, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

"How will you be titling the threads you use to announce these, so we can watch for these great opportunities?"

Most threads announcing events have the word PalTalk in them - just keep your eyes out.

"Do you have any particular guidelines you use when you do this, that we might like to be aware of? What's the procedure in your *room*?"

The Mudcat Song Circle was strictly for live (no recordings or karaoke) music. The focus was heavily on Folk and Blues but that wasn't rigidly enforced. The descision as to what was and wasn't appropriate was left to the discretion of the admin at the time.

"Are there some threads relating to your activities that would be a good idea for us to review? (Links appreciated.) "

You could read through past threads but really with all these rooms, you are better off just visiting them and getting your own feel for them.

"What do the people who *attend* your activities seem to get out of the experience? (May seem obvious to you but if we have not been there....)"

I guess the oppertunity to share music with others.

"What do you love most about doing this? What's hard about it?"

Love: Joining in with and listening to others.

Hard: I "owned" a room that could be opened by a number of admins 24hrs a day, 7 days a week. As the owner, I was responsible (according to PalTalk rules) for the room. I obviously trusted the Admins who did an excellent job but I still felt that there was a need to keep a slight check on things when problems cropped up and to ensure PalTalk rules were adhered to, e.g. there was a question over whether we could bounce a persistent nuisance on sight because of his behavior.

Impossible: 1. Trying to run a room of this type, keep it available all the while and keep everybody in Mudcat happy. 2. Not getting ground down by grumbles and politics.

Jon