If everyone is operating here as an individual Amos, then why are so many people singing praises of the group? Are you suggesting that a group of individuals don't take on a group dynamic?

Anywhere in life, we operate both as individuals and as members of groups. THAT is the dynamic I'm talking about. Individuals who are members of groups begin to take on some individual personification of the group identity. Here the group identity itself has become an "insider" identity, I believe, because of the member/guest dichotomy being an identifying difference between Mudcat and rec.music.folk or Mudcat and the Folk Alliance mailing list, or Mudcat and the Folk Scare Discussion list.

If some of you could distance yourselves enough from the Mudcat group, and look more objectively at the posts that here day in and day out, you would see how much dialog here is about the group, and about the group members. Now, the fact that this group of people has a strong group identity isn't a problem. Really. What is a problem is *some* of the group members dominating others, and using a negative dynamic to rule the roost along member/guest lines in the sand.

The only saving grace of the forum, IMO, is the fact that there are enough individuals who aren't here to be part of the group at all, who will never get sucked into the group dynamic. Rather, they will use this forum as a place to talk about something they love or are wanting to learn about: music. And they aren't going to get involved in the rest of the group thing, regardless of how intense the pressure is from outsiders or from insiders to join the group.

Now, some of those individuals have become members, some haven't. But the fact that they always manage to stay above the fray is the main strength of this forum, not the comradery of the people who are coming here for community more than music. IMO.