" ... but the general feeling I get, is that newcomers with little or limited talent are not especially welcome at many of the clubs organised or run by several posters on the Mudcat forum."

I would like to express my outrage at this monstrous misrepresentation of what has been said on this thread so far!! Very few, if any posts, have advocated the discouragement of 'newcomers'!
I very much doubt if anyone who has paid the slightest attention to the majority of posts here could have come to that conclusion.

For the record here's what I wrote way back in the mists of time (29th October):

"Of course everyone has a 'right' to perform in public, if they are so moved, but with that right comes a RESPONSIBILITY not to alienate the audience. If a particular performer is a bit rough round the edges in the early days that's OK, and completely understandable, and even, more or less, acceptable. BUT if that performer is still ragged and unlistenable to a year (or two or three!) on, and it is obvious that he/she is not even attempting to develop his/her art then, I insist, that is NOT acceptable."