I have a feeling that the following quote from Brian Peters is central to these 'what-is-folk' threads:

"I don't recall ever seeing one of these endless Mudcat threads about definitions being started by a 1954 defender telling us that all folk venues should present traditional material, or that all singers should be vetted for their adherence to 1954 criteria. What I have seen is a lot of threads instigated by people who *don't* believe in 1954 - or, I suspect, in any kind of definition at all - challenging the concept. At which point those who find 1954 intellectually coherent feel obliged to defend it."

I also suspect that those who believe that, 'anything-goes-in-a-folk-club' and are 'anti-1954',are, at heart, somewhat insecure in their choices - they have a need for those choices to be sanctioned by 'higher authority'. They confuse the 'higher authority' of the 1954 committee with the 'arbiters of cool' whose authority seems to prevail in the world of popular music. If people like 'glueman' and 'Sinister Supporter' are as 'free thinking' as they claim to be then they shouldn't need to rely on 'higher authority' for their choices! And, as Brian Peters makes clear above, no-one is forcing them to make different choices.