Bob, you wrote in your 20 Oct 06 - 12:15 PM post to this thread that [people] "tended to view their own, or their family's, versions as the *correct* versions. "So and so over the mountain sings it too, but she don't sing it right."

With regard to children's rhymes {the genre of folk music I've been actively collecting for some years},I've no doubt that this is still the prevailing viewpoint. When I first started collecting children's rhymes, I can recall being surprised that there were any other versions of "Miss Mary Mack" and "Miss Lucy Had A Baby", two
rhymes I learned in my childhood. And if I had heard of another version, I probably would have thought that those people were "messing up" that rhyme.

However, I believe the Internet is changing this viewpoint.

If, for instance, you look at the comments made by posters on the Schoolyard games thread on this website:
http://blog.oftheoctopuses.com/000518.php, you'll find that there are multiple versions of the same children's rhymes. And, though there are some posters who write that a previously posted version is wrong, there are quite a numberof posters who preface their examples with a comment such as "this is the way I remember it" or "the way I learned it is ____".

As an aside, posters to that thread have been encouraged to include demographical information {such as geographical area and when they recited those rhymes}. And an increased number of posters are adding that information. So not only are Internet websites helping to demonstrate to the general public that there are multiple variants of rhymes and no one version is better than any other, but posting on the Internet is also proving to be means of collecting and preserving folkloric information.

Mudcat and other websites are helping to do this too. However, I am heartened by the fact that that particular thread whose link I provided seems to attract children & youth. And I'm happy to report that my website's pages on examples of contemporary English language children's rhymes and cheers, http://www.cocojams.com/ also seems to be attracting a number of submissions from children & youth {as well as adults}. And some of these posters are including demographical information.

This is not to say that the majority of children, youth, and adults don't still think that the folk songs & rhymes that they know are the only version-or the only right version-of a particular song or rhyme. However, it appears that that perception is changing.

And I believe that's a good thing.