First and most important, John Routledge and I , as Officers of the "Friends of Mudcat" (an organization founded to channel contributions from the UK to Mudcat central regularly in a manner not to incurr excessive Bank Charges) are currently discussing ways of reviving and re-publicising the activities of "FoM" and holding elections of Officers.
Secondly, I support what Max says, but would add that what may appear to be superficially "of Local interest" only is often Very Useful if one is travelling to other parts of ones own country and also if travelling abroad, the "Local" thread gives names of contacts in an area, for instance, I know who to contact if I can raise the money to visit Sydney in Oz, Partly through posts, partly through Secret Santas, and partly through being contacted and hosting visiting Australians!!! all Thanks to Mudcat,
Similarly my "annual" visits to the Getaway, The trips would be IMPOSSIBLE without Mudcat, I would have never been to either the Getaway or to the Press Room in Portsmouth NH (which I learned about from Mudcat, local news stuff) and I would have missed out on meeting and making friends with a wide range of interesting people.
It is one of the beauties of the Internet that I think Mudcat epitomises, it is both International and local and Can and Should be,
because you never know when YOU might end up in Manchester!! (either NH or Lancs,) and be looking for an evening of Folk Music.
Many thanks Max, you are an Hero and much appreciated by Your Friend Micca