My motive for harping on this, Cookieless Member, is to get the situation changed, so Mudcat will once again become a forum I can support enthusiastically, and enjoy like I did when I first started coming here.

I believe there are two problems that, if resolved well enough (not perfectly--I am a realist), would make this forum the enjoyable place it once was for me. Those two problems can be solved technically by Max for the most part: 1) installing filters, and; 2) putting an end to the member/guest log-in. I don't care how Max chooses to solve the latter problem. I just want to see the member/guest log-in software scrapped, because I think too many people get sucked into the manipulation of the member=good, guest=bad mindset. Which then starts the flaming and trolling.

Then, there is one other thing that would sure be nice to see happen, and that is community policing of one another, to stop the worst abuses here. And no, I don't mean the PM, I mean people getting called out on their way off behavior right here in the forum, publicly, to get them to stop. I've seen community policing work miracles in other forums, really. It can work. Folks just have to believe that policing can be done without scapegoating. And that is another part of my unease here at Mudcat. When the Mudcat Mafia attempted to engage in some community policing regarding the Bruce Olson thing, they ended up scapegoating him, rather than looking at what they themselves were doing wrong. Yes, Bruce may have used some questionable methods to prove his point. But I've done the same here, to try and get people to see and understand the negative dynamic which has taken over the forum, even among otherwise good and wise folk.

We all need to look at the dark underside of the things we love and are involved with from time to time. I think this is one of those times for Mudcat. Instead of pointing fingers at anonymous posters, of which there are really only ever a miniscule number here, I think people should be looking at themselves and one another, and asking what they can do to turn things around for the better.

If that doesn't happen, my fearless predicition is this place will just become a magnet for more and more BS flame warriors, and then another once successful music forum will bite the dust.