Well I know nothing about Baseball and I won't be told what to discuss by Martyin Gibson who wishes to highjack yet another thread.
So staying on topic:

Attacking and beating people down is not what this place was ever about..
Taking threads and using them as an outlet for, whatever it is, venom, amusement (kind of sick though) Fun (aren't there better ways) dumping anger and resentment, jealousy. Not one attempt to tone it down and be decent or apologise...unless someone agrees with the foul mouther, then they are are in the inner circle of the non attack club.. how sick is that!
No the ole Mudcat it ain't what it used to be and if it keeps up there will only be a couple of folks coming down here....so many great people just don't come in anymore as it is.
All this in 11 months after Years of great debate, Craic, humor, Stories, fun threads,
Getaways and Festivals. Going to each other Homes and playing Music. Sharing the good stuff and the crap and the sad times.
I wouldn't even consider posting anything here that's remotely personal now as it would be ripped to shreds within minutes.
I am tired...tired of words like C*** being used towards women and men called, fetal matter and People being told they are a bad Jews, Americans, British, French, Scots, Commies, Liberal Pinkos, anti Semites, Children have been wished dead!! ,obscene remarks to people that I know and like and can see no reason for them. None. Some of the people that are being bashed are older Folks that have been around for a long time here so why do this too them, really respected people in various Fields out there! They haven't even posted a retort or a reply to the insult yet next time they post something, abuse is their answer.
Then people say where is so and so...!!!!
People getting told by some to get a Life but what kind of life does the someone who encourages and probes people to react have that this is entertainment to them.
Maybe the idea is to just hound everyone else till nobody is left.
Which brings me to why I am saying this today.
I had an embarrassing moment yesterday. A while ago I was telling a pretty well known Musician Friend about the Mudcat and he said yeah I've heard of it. He came in last week, I didn't know he had and he looked though the DT and scanned the Music section.
The utter shock for him came when he read some Threads that looked interesting in the BS section and found many really foul posts and all from the same source...he called me last night and said.. "why do you go in that Forum?" He said before he got a Computer he had been told about Mudcat when he was on the Road. That it had a great rep among Musicians, Writers and Artists.. "what happened"...I couldn't answer him and found myself unable to say anything. I have never felt the need to defend this Forum but on this occasion due to who I was dealing with, I found I was not only unable to say anything to explain what was going on, I was Embarrassed. That's happened more than once now but this particular Musician well, all I could think was I may be able to ignore to some extent the vile stuff but what about someone like Him...he's just reading and instantly thinking...no thanks I'm out of here and then we lost someone great, someone who wouldn't treat people that way online or in Life.
I mean there is no shortage of Forums out there were this is not only acceptable but encouraged, I did not think of Mudcat as one of them.
It is a pretty unique place in many ways. Shame to see it becoming abusive and disappearing under a cloud of of excuses and posts saying lame things like anyone can post here, maybe so, but can anyone post anything no matter how debasing it is. It would seem so.

Maybe it is time for a break from here...because it doesn't appear to be getting better...in fact it's getting worse.
I suppose that all good things come to an end at some point and maybe that's what has been happening over the last Year or so to Mudcat.
So many Longtime Members don't even come in anymore.
I was thinking of changing my settings to Music only and setting my filter but what's the point really. It's happening in the Music section now.
Threads are being highjacked because they are being allowed to be. Folks are being abused and reacting because it;s nast stuff that's being thrown at them and Folks aren't coming back because of it and that speaks volumes really. No matter what is said about not responding and whining ect and all that good stuff isn't a solution it's an excuse for not dealing with it.
I came in last night for lyrics to a lullaby and looked at the BS section and thought, this is just ridiculous, now I see what my Friend meant.