And yet another welcome, Fred, this time from beautiful southeastern Pennsylvania, where Mudcat headquarters is located (in Max's dining room)!

As Gypsy says, you can sign up as a member now in order to reap the benefits immediately (the ability to send Private Messages to other members, save threads on your personal Tracer, add bookmarks to your personal page, bid on auction items, etc.)... then just be sure to go to the Membership page of the menu and "log out" before you leave Mudcat for the day. That way, you can "log in" on any computer, such as the ones at your local library, and you'll still be able to submit posts using your member-name AND still have a personal page and all the other bennies!