Hi Greg. I've been around for four years now, and have seen darn near everything. I'm an 'information junkie' and have long been a 'speed reader' (which would be a severe shock to all the teachers who gave up on me in high school). I think "Trolls" absolutely run the gamut from seriously psychotic loners to superannuated "kid" pranksters. In between, there are folks who are pissed at the direction their favourite forum is going, BUT (perhaps to their embarrassment) DO feel that they've become part of this community, so they 'go underground' when they're really ticked.

Nasty, racist, and inflammatory crap obviously DOESN'T help the forum's profile...but neither do countless totally silly threads either. As a study of 'folks period', Mudcat has been astonishing to me...and still one hell of a treat. Yeah, I'd like to discuss early recorded Folk, Jazz and blues, with a few more folks who are as obsessed as I am...but there's still a few at Mudcat, and I've exchanged e-mails with the ones who've moved on.

Every week (because of who 'lives here' AND 'who drops by') I've found at least one thread that captures me completely (have you checked out the "kid" Ory thread?) and that's enough for it to be 'serious' in my book.

As far as the trolls? Wish they weren't there...but they WILL be...so it doesn't matter that much to me.

Cheers

Rick