I can't for the life of me figure out why anybody would criticize a fine --and free-- service -----Joe's party analogy is perfect----which has linked people from around the world, sometimes even literally, and has provided untold wealth in musical knowledge, humor, recipes, different political perspectives--and the list goes on------in fact a window on many different worlds.

Yet the same people (on this thread) keep whining over and over. If you have preferable alternatives, guess what---you are free to go. Somehow we'll survive without you.

So Mudcat goes down from time to time, and may stay down for a while. I am told there are other things I could be doing around home---imagine that! When it goes down, that removes temptation, which otherwise ain't easy to resist.

Surely the gripers have something else to do with their lives. How about practicing or playing music.?

For anybody above adolescence, instant gratification should not be a requirement for existence.