I've only really got active on Mudcat in the past 2 years or so, and am very grateful for its existence - a wonderful source of information, entertainment and occasional enlightenment. The tone of discussion and disagreement can sometimes become a little, er, NSFW, but I'd take that any day over an airbrushed over-editorialised discussion.

The rise of specialist discussions forums and the death of Usenet (uk.music.folk, for example, is pretty much moribund apart from spam) has fragmented the online discussion of traditional music in the past few years through the sheer available choice of platforms - but the Mudcat is one watering hole we can all meet at, and we should value it for that.