gargoyle,

I like you as a brother, but as happens with all families, there are often many times when brothers and sisters disagree.

This is one of those times.

In my opinion, the traditions and aesthetics of marching bands can be an interesting topic for consideration and for discussion among persons interested in folk cultures.

As to most of the posts on this thread being from me, that is the case now. This may continue to be the case. Or this may change.

In my opinion, there are two types of Mudcat threads:

1. conversational/discussion threads- where posts are from a number of people who respond to each other's comments & questions

2. information presentation threads -where information on a topic is presented by one person or a few people for the purpose of sharing knowledge and/or particular perspectives on a topic, and/or for others consideration about that topic.

I have started both kinds of Mudcat threads. And while I very much prefer the conversational/discussion type threads, I also consider information/presentation type threads to be an appropriate use of Mudcat bandwith-or whatever it's called that is used when posting to this forum.

As you are aware, Mudcat archives its threads and these thread titles are available by key words through Mudcat's search engines as well as other online search engines such as Google and Yahoo. This means that today, tomorrow, next month, or years from now persons interested in this topic could access this thread. Those persons accessing this thread, still may not post to it. But they could do so if they had a mind to-that is, if this thread has not been closed or deleted.

Of course, Mudcat's chief moderator is the ultimate judge of what topic or discussion is or is not appropriate for this forum, and for the above the line music/folk culture section.

If this hread isn't deleted or closed, or moved to the BS section, then that means that it passed the test of what is or is not an appropriate topic for above the line threads about folk culture.