"Help Forum used to BE that place."

That's only useful if the problem is just the main Cat offline - when the hassle is a net DOS attack like in the last few days, then having another machine in the same net domain is usually of little use.

Various people have come up with various ideas, including external chat groups, Yahoo lists, etc. But now with the various obnoxious anonymous idiots clogging up the help forum, as well as the regular spam attacks on th emain forum, I tend towards the idea "ah - can't get thru, is there something useful I can do with my life right now?", as I am loath to encourage the hostile selfish idiots currently trying to trash Mudcat, from moving on to other Mudcat related places - they must be getting just as frustrated losing their favourite place to be obnoxious, as do the people who wish to use the Cat in a socially cooperative manner.