I'm not much into navel gazing. The Mudcat has been around for over a decade. It's membership was much smaller, but still quite knowledgable. When I was new to the 'Cat, I was fairly new to computers and definitely new to the Internet.

I enjoyed answering questions on various subjects and I enjoyed getting some of my questions answered. I have gotten to meet many catters face to face and found them all to be interesting people who share my interest in folk music (whatever that may be).

In the early days, we had many threads asking catters to describe their interests. These days, such threads would probably quickly get too long. There were many discussions of what qualitites this forum had and should have.

It really was an on-line community. People reached out to others when they were in need. People supported each other through hard times. It still has the qualities of a community, but a much larger community. The Brits have a large slice of the community, but why not. We certainly brought them in. They also have a different viewpoint and I find it interesting and educational.

There are fewer questions that I answer or even know the answer to. Yet there is still much to learn. And I continue to develop the friendships I have made here both on-line and off-line. I don't surf any other forums, so I cannot compare the Mudcat to others. It is not what it used to be. What is! But it is still a community that feels like home (except maybe the Walmart has come to down and several new developments have grown up from the corn fields). If you like it stay. If not, there is a very wide world out there.

Roger in Baltimore (who doesn't even live in Maryland anymore (everything changes))