Forgive me if I am wrong Shambles, but I am not reading any admission to failure in that statement from Joe, nor have I seen any from Max - who is the ultimate voice. What you have posted is Joe's description of what has happened as Mudcat has evolved and a comment that their "best efforts" have not made improvement to bring peace. That is far from an "admission of failure".

Change is constant and necessary.   Some of us accept change and welcome it. Others rebel at the mere thought. There will always be someone who gripes over what they have no possibility of changing.

My suggestion on how we can bring peace to this place - more frequent deletions of posts like mine and others on this thread. Drop the BS and keep it a site based on folk music.   Mudcat has become an excuse for people to state their opinions on ANYTHING. This is not the corner bar. When the site operated more as a music site, there was more joy to be found.   Rambling discourses on how the site should be run should be trashed.   I would have no problem seeing this thread closed, or my own statements deleted.   The owners of this site have the perogative to do that.   The fact that they have not shows how open they actually are.