When I first stumbled on to Mudcat (or whatever it was back then) it was at a site supported by Zerox - then it disappeared and soon reappeared - I think about 1997.

At that time my impression of the data base was that it was heavily skewed toward British Isle songs - not that there's anything wrong with that - although I would like to see a few more traditional and old timey American songs there.

In terms of participation on the discussion forum I felt it was pretty evenly spread across English speakers - England, Ireland, Britain, Australia, the US, some South American, a few German, Iceland, etc. Which is pretty darned neat.

One of the supprises to me - for a site supposedly oriented to the "blues" - was so little evidence of them - either in the data base or in discussion.

The discussions back then seemed to be basically requests for lyrics, then off-the-wall-humor with people like Catspaw, and then later, when some expert pickers showed up - like Rick Fielding and Art Thieme - some really informative discussions about instrument technique.

Once in a great while there would be an in-depth discussion of the origin of a particular song, or about the use of modes, etc. There were, and are, some real scholars present on this forum.

Although there was always a bit of truculence, and some hurt feelings, it doesn't seem that major imbroglios and personal attacks were a part of Mudcat until the last few years. The "below the line" BS division was, to my mind, a brilliant way to separate the chaff from the wheat.

To sum up; the Mudcat will never entirely be what any one person wants it to be, British or American, pure music or BS, but, if you're willing to go with the flow, it's still one of the most interesting sites about folk music on the internet.