I'm proud to have been one of the guests who has cared enough to take the abuse for pointing out Max and his posse's failings and foibles. While I know they can't possibly accept that my motives and intentions behind doing it were for the good of all, to root out the rot destroying this place, that has always been my purpose for posting here since last summer. They are just too close to this thing, I think. Can't see the forest for the trees.

The best thing that could possibly happen here is that the guest log-in be eliminated. That way, Max and the Mudcat Mafia will be forced to wade through their own excrement, and possibly (though I doubt it) become aware that they've no one but themselves to blame for creating and maintaining a forum with such appallingly low standards for behavior.

Nothing any of us says will change their minds about guests, though. It is just too easy for them to scapegoat guests, and avoid the real problems.

My guess is the forum will just keep getting less and less relevant than it has already become to the on-line folk music community, until one day it just sorta fades away. No guest log-in is bound to cut the foot traffic, though none of us knows by how much. I can't be bothered with the user name/PW thing to post on websites, and I'm sure a lot of the new and occassional user foot traffic will feel the same way. Those regular guests who wish to continue posting will become members, and that will be that.

I don't agree with Fionn and the others, who claim that Max's divine right of ownership gives him the inalienable right to offend and insult the guest users of his website, which IS what he did with his "open letter". It takes a whole lot of arrogance and hatred to post a letter like that, especially in the wake of the Drumcree threads, where anon guests made the thread the thing that it was. Just smacks of sour grapes.

Max has the ability to behave like a jerk, not the right to do it. Private websites aren't democracies, but if you aren't fair in your dealings with the users of your forum, just what kind of forum do you get? Answer: Mudcat today.