The little fish jumping out of the banjo. It was all his idea. Max and Pene and Joe and all the clones don't really exist. They're just AI creations dreamed up by the fish to further the myth that the site was created and is maintained by human beings. The fish only created the AI's because nobody would visit a site put together by a fish.

In fact, there is a theory that the entire membership is just a batch of AI constructs and that there's not a human being involved in the whole ball of wax. That theory gets a little dodgey when you meet other Mudcatters in person, but if you just keep reminding yourself that they're not real, regardless of how well they play the fiddle, everything works out just fine.

As to the question of why the fish created the site, the best guess is that it wanted to give computer semi-literates a chance to learn a smattering of HTML.

We sincerely hope this information has helped to muddy the waters a bit and that you are now thoroughly confused and, perhaps, a bit frightened.