Liz, re the sort of network of friends: I doubt that rmf has one but it is not impossible... Mudcat does have a tendancy to look inwards and think they are tey only ones in many ways...

alt.banjo (alt is perhaps the hardest of the usnet heirachies) recently managed to collaborate and put a 2 CD set of contributions out.

the (at some time I thought this was the feeling here) "evil outsiders" from the Paltalk music groups managed to organise a get together with Moongoddess...

The way I see it is that Mudcat has been sitting around saying "what a wondeful community we are" while other places, even those in seemingly impossible circumstances have moved forward.

Isn't it time to look and think and rather than just pat ourselves on the back (and in some cases I think have a Mudcat Cult (not clique)) to look at ways of moving Mudcat forwards.

Jon