John I'm sorry you think that your statement was taken out of context, having re-read your post I think that the sentence I used stands on it's own as a complete statement, if anything I could have clipped the few words at the front, Your contribution is welcomed, what you have said has been reasonable, and honest, and you told it as you saw it. Please read my previous posting "Dear Dr. Mudcat", which was started a week or so before this "spat" erupted. To be honest it was aimed at some of the other mudcatters (I class myself as one) who come to the Jug on a Wednesday's it was felt, (and not just by me), Bill endorsed my views, that the balance had swung too far from a music session to a talking group. Regular musicians had started to drop off, forced out by not being able to get a seat, and by not being able to hear what they and others were playing. Some of the newer people had instruments with them, but often as a prop. Mudcat is by definition a talking shop, it owes it's existence to the forum. If it was just a Tune Database it would probably get 100 hit's a day world wide. I was hoping that some of the worst offenders might read the thread, and moderate the volume of their chatter. To see within days that Bill was advertising Nationally, and internationally in a place that would only be seen by a group of people that we had already identified as causing a problem beggared belief. No attempt had been made to contact any local musicians, (as far as I'm aware) it was just compounding the problem. I'm not suggesting that people sit in silence for the entire evening, That posting of Bill's was unreasonable, and unfair to the other users of the jug, who are not represented here if they don't have a computer. We were lucky that only 15 or so mudcatters did turn up, There could have been many more, and that would have buggered up any chance of a session. I'm sorry that you and other musicians have been caught up in this, and hope that they will come to the jug in future, but if you want to turn the session into a chat room with background music then think again. As I've said repeatedly if people want to sit and chat, start a Mudcat night on a different night, Sid would love that. It doesn't have to be either / or.