In my experience, the Mudcat works about as well as most of the services in this world. It is (at the moment) more reliable than my ISP, about as reliable as the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and less reliable than FedEx.

For me it is a hopeful sign that a commons such as the Mudcat can survive, and work pretty well, on the Internet, despite a large proportion of freeloaders. (Another such commons, the outfit that maintains a mailing list devoted to another side of my deviance, gets by on donations from 2% of its users.) This suggests that, despite the continual sneers of market-worshipers, a commons need not end in tragedy. I give money regularly to several such services. As for the freeloaders, they have their reward.