Ya know, this kinda reminds of what Dale Earnhardt once said......"It doesn't matter if they cheer you or boo you. Once they stop doing both, then you've got a problem."

Mudcat is alot of things, to alot of different people. It is a music forum, it is a chat forum, it is a place where a few people come to flame and troll.

Members and Guests can come here, free of charge to hobknob. Famous musicians, not so famous musicians, pub players, and people who love folk and blues music can all show up and offer ideas, thoughts, flames, whatever. The fact that all these people come, day in and day out, can call this website a success. I definitely would.

Max is going to install something that solves a problem that he sees. If Mudcat, as some have stated, is swirling the drain right now, i'm going to bring my rubber duckie, loofa sponge and back scratcher. I commend Max for doing this.

It won't stop the flame postings completely. But it forces flamers and trollers, whether they are members or guests, to be held accountable for their membership. I know what your thinking. If you lose your logon, you just get another. I agree. But now a level or complexity is added, by people having to readd information to recieve a new logon name. It won't stop some i agree, but it might stop one or two, as it becomes tedious to do.

The IP logging won't do much right away, but there are sites that have the same IP constantly, perhaps users use an online coffee shop to surf, some users might leave their computers and connections on all the time. Cable is like that I think. I believe perhaps a few troublemakers will be figured out this way.

All of these things will only work if Max and the Joe's constantly monitor posters.

On the point of what Max can and cannot do, I guess we'll have to just disagree. I honestly believe Max really can do whatever he wants. If he is constantly rude to all users, whether they are members or guests, Mudcat would die. Period. If Max were constantly bashing me, I would leave. But he doesn't. So I don't.

I believe that Max truly believes in free speech, as I do. I feel it is a right to say what you want when. But if you do, you have to realize that you can be held accountable for what you said. IMO, I know he believes in free speech because he has allowed ALOT of messages to stay in threads, from members and guests, which are just insults. They far and away are alot more than the ones that have been deleted.

I don't think he changing our use to deny people of free speech. I think he's trying to get people to be somewhat more accountable for what they write. By deleting an account of someone who just flames, they now are held accountable for what they said, and at the same time, a large amount of people will not be painted with the same brush stroke of 'troller' as that one person. Its not a perfect system. Nothing is. But I support this idea because I believe the pros outweigh the cons. More power to ya Max.

Steve