Let me take a deep breath before I post this. I have been a prime target of Martin Gibsons on many occasions, and I've had threads hijacked with his obscenities and attacks on other Catters to the point where I decided to take a leave of absence from here to cool off. Since I've come back, I've exchanged PMs with MG, encouraged him to participate positively on a few threads, and participated on a couple of his (none of which were rife with the kind of attack/counter-attack garbage that has poisoned this place recently.)
I've expressed my appreciation to MG, and would hate to see him "shunned."

There are some serious problems with the approach of shunning him. If you refuse to read any thread that he's posted to, you eliminate whole threads that have been good... like the "Is Bluegrass an attitude?" thread, for example. There is also very little encouragement for MG to participate in a positive manner, if no one is going to read his posts, positive or negative. If you want to shun a thread, shun any threads that slide into mudslinging, whoever is involved. Recently, MG isn't the only one who has started the attacks. I'd ask those who find it entertaining to pull Martin's chain to stop and examine themselves to see if they can't find alternative forms of entertainment.

I've been disgusted with the way Martin came blasting into Mudcat, attacking everyone with foul obscenities. I hope that, if not attacked, that he will ease off on that kind of behavior, and I've seen evidence that he has. I'd encourage people to give him a break and that we ALL cool our hormones (as my teenage sons used to tell me.)

Jerry