I use Mudcat for practice. In general, I feel I'm among friends here and in a place where I can say what I want to say, testing my arguments to see how they will work in a more public forum. Here is where I experiment with my thinking on matters, to see if my approach is workable.

Precisely so, Joe. And that's why it matters. It's not about changing the minds of the people we get into arguments or discussions, it about effecting our own ideas and how we express them and develop them. There aren’t too many opportunities to do that in the offline world, not in the same way.

It's been compared to talking in a pub, but I don't really think that's quite right. More often than not in pubs, even if there's much talk (which isn't the case a lot of the time), it tends to be about non-contentious stuff. Often enough there's even a semi- official or even official ban on talking about stuff like politics or religion. Even talk about football can be seen as too liable to cause problems.

I think too many of us spend all our Mudcat visits down below the line. Or above it. I think there's a real value in visiting both. It can be good to find someone you're at daggers drawn down below actually shares your musical tastes and views.