I'll keep this brief.

I spent all day Sunday walking in the hills in the Scottish borders with 2 non-musos, telling them about this great site that I had come across.

What was key to me was the feeling of inclusion, I couldn't believe when I first posted (as a guest)that no-one said "who are you" or "bugger-off" this despite the fact that I asked some pretty stupid questions. I felt genuinely honoured that I was obviously sitting in hte company of some serious players, in both senses.

The worry has to be that in changing, the forum doesn't lose something important. At teh end of the day does Mudcat want to be an exclusive gathering or a community performing missionary work for the music. I had thought the latter.

I would still like to know why good people ( and they are the majority ) want to post anonymously. SO far I ahve seen two reason to avoiid embarassment at asking stupid q's (this from a member) and a general internet security issue of not wanting to exchange details.

I am absolutely sure that the die is cast but I'm going to give my thoughts, because I care.

If we new why people post privately it can be addressed, eg above perhaps the security surrounding members details could be published to reassure this guest. Embarassment... well thats perhaps something that individuals have to deal with. If this is a genuine community then free-exchange should be possible.

Rules for teh site more clearly diplayed, including and perhaps most important of all astrict rule not to post or respond to deliberately provocative posting.

With problems I always think the code is determine what the problem is, minimise it and address whats left.

Its great here, lets keep it great.

PS stop slagging each other it looks really poor.