Matt, the problem is that you are "them," as am I, as are all the folks who don't participate in all the negative stuff.

I suspect folks would still communicate on way or another. I'd be upset if Mudcat went away. I'd probably be resentful for a while. I'd eventually get over it, and feel fortunate that for one brief, shining moment, there was a place called Mudcat.

I suspect Max doen't let most of the crap get to him, though. I hope he doesn't, anyway. No matter how heated a discussion gets around here, or how obvious the beast within each of us makes itself, we value this place. We just forget to say "thanks," or maybe think Max can read our minds.

Me, I wonder what this place would be like if I went away and came back in a year or two. When I joined a couple of years ago, the threads were mostly music with a bit of BS. A year ago, there was still quite a bit of music, and a bunch of BS, of which a small part was nasty. Most of the nastiness came from certain individuals who intended to be nasty. Now it seems like the threads are mostly BS, and a lot of them turn nasty no matter how they start out. Maybe familiarity breeds contempt, and we know each other a bit too well. We seem to be very polite and generous strangers, but suspicious and irritable friends. I guess while we're in the process of forgetting to say "thanks" to Max, we also forget to acknowledge (or even remember) the wonderful, unique qualities each individual around here possesses.

I've heard the philosophy of living each day as if it were your last day on earth. Maybe if we treated each person as if it were theirs...