Max has asked Shambles to leave. Shambles has refused Max's invitation. So, is this now going to be a fourth thread on which people bash Shambles? (Yes, I am aware he can be a pain in the ass to some of you who can't leave his threads alone. I perceive that to be your problem, not his. When I feel his posts will cause me undue stress of the anal sphincter I simply don't read them. It's got nothing to do with Shambles or Max.) The question Shambles has asked is valid, and the answer to it just isn't: there has been no answer.

People who respond that this is Max's site are correct. It is. It is also the work of many songwriters and musicians whose writing has been collected; a tremendous number of songs that history will be glad to have, because many would have been lost without this place. It is the work of excellent researchers like Jim, Malcolm (have you ever read this man's writing about obscure details of a song most people will never hear, and watched as he differentiates between fact, maybe fact, could be fact and speculation?), Q, Masato, George, Abby, and others I cannot recall of the top of my head and for which I apologize. It is the work of people like Amos who spent countless months enriching the 'playable music' part of the site. It is the work of people like Art and Kendall and Kytrad who have shared their memories of people and places and music. It is the work of people like Azizi who have shared her investigations into Black music/culture and thus enriched what at one time seemed like a place that wasn't open to that at all. And the work of Coltman in the Land Down Under who posts histories of people and their songs, patiently explains that YES, it is English and this is what it means, and reminds us all that it's not all about the UK and North America. It is the work of those kids who stumble in and want chords to songs because they haven't yet hit the stage where they can do it by ear, and then twenty posts follow and accomplished musicians of varying degrees argue the merits of this G position over that G position or whether the relative minor chord really interferes with the intended meaning of a word in the song. It's the work of clones who give much of their time to change thread titles so that our typos get fixed and where we meant to say Roddy McCorley doesn't remain as Roody McCooley. It is the work of countless people who write about events in 'their neck of the woods' and thus inform us all that indeed folk music is not dead--although defining that has defeated the best minds on this site. Where else can you locate a place that will talk about the distinguishing taste of certain beer, or why beer is not as good as ale, or people who had a grandfather's grandfather who not only made the stuff but also worked as a rumrunner and actually got hanged for doing things to sheep, and all in the same post? Where else?

So, I think two things right now:

1) Shambles should be QUIET and wait to see if the 'shake up' changes things so that maybe he can put to rest the monkey that's been on his back for longer than I know about--and yes, IMO, there has in the past been editing that seemed to favoUr some people to the detriment of others, and YES maybe the 'shake up' will change that in both perception and reality

2) If that pisses off anyone enough to block me, go ahead