Just because people recognise the mistakes that get in the way of threads surviving without degenerating into mud-slinging exercises that never seems to get in the way of them going on, often within a few posts, to do the very things they've rightly identified as toxic.

In all my life I doubt if I've ever run into anyone who shares my set of opinions on everything. But just about invariably I've found that however deep and wide the disagreement is, there'll be other things where we agree. And one of the most important aspects of the Mudcat is that it's got a solid foundation in love of the music (even though we disagree about that too).

The sad thing is, that's been eroded in recent years, with too many people who never seem to venture above the line, to post or, I suspect, to read what others have posted. (Can you trust anyone who never posts on the music side of the site?....)