The trouble that I have with the "oral tradition - uninfluenced" bit is that it excludes any song that has been written since writing was invented and also any song that has been written since people have been singing.

Because once writing was invented, people have been writing down songs. And since people have been singing together there must have been songs that were popular.

But we are never going to win over the pedantic crowd so we need to find a definition of our own.

I think we need to poll folk clubs and ask them to list the songs that were sung at their last meeting. This will tell us what songs are being sung that WE think are acceptable as folk songs.

Then we can think up out own name for them.