$0.02 worth:

When one views the forum as a day-trip, it IS mess-- unless one uses the filters to narrow the view. But when one views it as an interactive, searchable library, it reveals a lovely structure that has held up well over time.


1. What is being asked amounts to a suggestion for Mudcat to look and work like other discussion boards.

But-- Mudcat is one of the originators of the genre, not a clone from someone else's design. It has to evolve in its own way, especially since reorganizing it as suggested would probably confound later search efforts. There's a history of creativity of design here-- one that means all operational aspects are considered before changes are made. Tech changes are NOT made that would conflict with how the site already is. But often, a suggestion or request is responded to at a later time, that resolves a need much better than might first have been suggested. Changes that ARE made are integrations of numerous needs stated and addressed.


2. The best way to understand Mudcat (IMO) is NOT as a daily interactive newspaper, to be assimilated day by day, but as a library where one can find out things one wishes to know about the music one loves AND leave the shelves stocked better than I found them.

The lead paragraph on its front page describes Mudcat like this: With about 9000 songs in the Digital Tradition Database, you're sure to find what you're looking for. And if you don't find what you're looking for in the DT, try browsing, or posting to our Forum. Odds are your question will be answered within hours.


3. It DOES seem disorganized when one first looks in, and since the BS section became a section, it seems to me that there are more music threads each day then there used to be. It takes longer to see what's in them, than it used to.

But-- This is a GOOD thing. At least for me, it's led me to focus more narrowly on my own field, and contribute in that regard more fully, and give greater attention to details. Each day I plunge more deeply into my own field of study, I find more and more already HERE, and this leads me to want to leave the best and most informative record here for others, later.... I used to come here to GET. Now I come here to TRADE whatever I can add now for what someone else added a long time ago. I take more time to post what I find elsewhere, because I have a sense that this is the best place to put it safely on the shelf.

~Susan