Best for Max certainly, and that's his entitlement. It's his show and he can take his toy home whenever he likes. Maybe best for Mudcat too, but I doubt it. Putting a fence around will kill off at least half the value, and expose more of the trivial (though harmless ) natter that goes on between people who know each other, more or less.

Having spent minimal time here in recent weeks, I'm surprised to see this issue on the agenda right now. To me, Joe Offer's is the acid test: what kind of shop window do people see when they just call in for some info? Last night, out of many dozens of threads, no more than a handful were wholly unrelated to music. Admittedly one of those with a music link was some guy asking the world whether he should have been offended by someone else's behaviour, but still there was a hell of a lot of music/song-based info to dip into. And of course there were the brilliant Drumcree campsite threads, which without guests would never have happened.

Maybe I was just lucky when I dropped in, but I certainly didn't see a forum that was ruined by anonymous bile. Nor even one unhealthily preoccupied with discussing itself. I've seen both characteristics more strongly evidenced in the past two or three years.