I think some of this is Mudcat culture instead of just the Digitrad. I love Mudcat, but sometimes we can get awfully fussy about people starting a new thread on any issue that has ever been dealt with before. (Myself, I'd rather see five short readable threads than one 400 message one, but that's a personal preference and very much a minority position.)

The polite response, "The lyrics are in the Digital Tradition under such and such a title" is helpful, especially if it comes with a "blue clicky." Berating folks for wasting bandwidth is not. Looking for other variants is helpful, too.

For that matter, as one who entered at least 100 of the songs that were in early versions of the Digital Tradition, I can tell you that the Digitrad is full of human error and idiosyncrasies. There's always more to learn.

If folk music is to thrive, we need to be welcoming to newbies, and that means having a very high tolerance level for those who ask questions out of ignorance. After all, if folks didn't want to know more, they wouldn't ask - right?

Dan