Interesting points brought up.

1 I will have to give this thread to some of the "folklorists" I know, and see if they know anyone doing research on the Internet Social Interactivity Aspects. I think it would make an absolutely fascinating subject. How in depth they could go is likely to be a major subject of debate. (Endless, I would guess)

Newgroups, Well, I've been on the internet for about 20 years. I've used newsgroups for a blessed good lot of that time. With the older programs, (I've never used the newsgroups on Netscape/Explorer/etc), you could set the newsreader to show you
a - only NEW messages
b - Sorted by Date or Topic or person
c - NOT show you messages from specific people (Look up KILLFILES)
d - Keep showing SPECIFIC messages, whether you've read them or not.
e - Change Topic

Plus many other criteria, the above shows just a few of the common ones. With the newsgroup system, I can send ONE specific message to my e-mail for further followup, directly with that person.

Among the disadvantages of the newsgroup system are that the original messages get lost after a period of time, and with thread creep, no one changes the subject topic to the new topic of interest. It's hard to keep track of who originated and what the original message(s) were in fact about.

There are disadvantages to the Mudcat system too. When there IS Thread Creep, you can't change the subject heading to match the new direction, you have to Start a new thread. You cannot send JUST a single message to a specific person. You can send the whole thing, and then edit out the section you need. There are some other disadvantages.

The important thing is that we DO interact, and talk to each other.

We've all witnessed what happens when organizations/nations do NOT discuss, and bring out openess. This place DOES have a large number of advantages, but the most important is the major resource in the people who frequent the spot.

Max, Susan, Dick, Joe, and the others behind(or maybe not so behind) the scenes who talk to us each day are all important to the "feel" and atmosphere.

In Halifax, I go to a few of the open mic/sessions in town, and see the difference that a host makes. It IS considerable. The people are important, but they DON'T have to come. Everyone is welcomed and taken in, as part of the family that has developed over the number of years. I asked yesterday, and for the life of me, I can't remember when I first started coming here.

For some time I was just using the DT, which is what I was familiar with from the original location, as Xerox's Parc site.

I joined, but did not participate in the message forums, until Dale Rose sent me an e-mail on something in the forum. Since then they haven't been able to shut me up!

I do enjoy the site, the people and the openness. The only thing that I had wished for, but now don't need, was a separate message forum for the BS threads. With the SuperSearch, I can locate items in the body of a message in a quick and timely fashion. I had been thinking the BS threads were growing so fast, and thought that was what had made searches so unbearably long. I should have known that the "site maintainers" had something up their collective sleeves. I, for one, applaud, laud all of those contributors, both regular and irregular.

Mudcat IS one of a kind as a community. There are sites which do similar work, but the upshot is that Mudcat is UNIQUE, but that is because of the personality it has based on the people who come here!