Music of course is all subject to some kind of structure. So is the one-time anarchist commune which I am still associated with after 20-some years--because it has developed a modest bit of structure that accommodates its members. Just like Mudcat.

Mudcat is not a "virtual" community. It is a real community based on a real sharing of interests, and the fact that we are in physically disparate locations and not looking into each other's eyes as we speak, requires that we have a high degree of trust of each other. Because we get to know each other on the basis of our postings, which are and should be far more than just dry information-sharing in regards to the music which brought us all here. Starts with knowing with whom you are speaking. Most of us aren't just frolicking in cyberspace indulging in the dubious pleasures of anonymity and deceit. A masquerade ball might be fun, but only if one enters it voluntarily.

The way I see it, deceiving others by posing as another real person is far more destructive to the Cat than just saying something nasty, which we know who is saying it. And that pisses me off. Almost as much (theoretically more, but I like kat and despise people exercising their own prejudices by attacking my friends) as the personal attacks directed at kat and others.

Willie-O