I know I'll come in for some stick for starting this one but I've probably gone too far already. I also know I took a different stance last time this subjcet cropped up but in view of talk of Mudcat needing more money, organisations like UK friends of Mudcat, grants being talked about, etc. I will re-raise the issue.

Firstly, I think providing such things would remove a burden from Max, maybe give this place some more direction and perhaps remove some doubts/questions. I for example have some that I can not reconcile:

1. The development cycle here. Without being funny, I would estimate that I could from scratch copy Mudcat and add most if not all of the new features I have seen mentioned and have a stable version running with 6 weeks yet a year ago, a new version was only 2 weeks away. I'm not saying there can't be problems, people should not have their own lives, I don't even question Jeff's programming abilities (in fact I have a lot of respect for him) but the situation does not make any sense to me and I wish I knew why and how help could be given.

2. Mudcat is often talked about as if it is state of the art. The reality is Mudcat is unstable and apparently uses kit that is several years old (e.g. shorty, a 300hz PC). The reasons here are probably financial but what can be done to help and how is the money if any to be spent?

3. On my searching, I found that cognitive science.org shows the same IP address as help.mudcat.org. The most likely reason is that the 2 domains share the same server using a virtual server solution. Onstage Media also, to the best of my knowledge only has one line which Mudcat shares. What part of the total costs is allocated to each company or organisation?

Wouldn't it perhaps make more sense to have a commitee to help steer the direction of Mudcat and to produce accounts so everyone can see what is happening, where money is going and where money is needed? ... and perhaps also give other practical help where needed? Wouldn't a system where everyone could pull together be desirable?

As it stands, to me, I see money (probably not enough) coming in and Mudcat still declining in terms of what it can offer (shory "died", I don't know where loki went or dharma for that matter, radio went, etc.) and no indication of what in terms of regular finaces would be needed to improve matters.

Jon