No, Tim, I don't think we could ever come to an agreement on what to remove to "clean up Mudcat." I think we're better off learning to tolerate others having the freedom of expression that we'd like ourselves to have.

Way back in the earliest days of Mudcat, we had a Mudcatter named Elsie who waged a one-woman war to keep Mudcat free of non-folk posts and non-folk lyrics. Other forces prevailed, and Elsie faded into the mists. Since then, we've tolerated almost everything but direct personal attacks, and we've had a tradition of freedom of posting that has continued to this day.

And we folkie purists are still here, and we like our songs unexpurgated.

All of us find elements of Mudcat distasteful. I have been soundly chastised for my dislike of birthday and "good thoughts" threads. If I had my druthers, I'd ban them - but a lot of Mudcatters wouldn't like that. I think we're best off leaving most things as they were posted, and satisfy ourselves by grumbling here and there about the things we don't like.

In other words:

Clean up Mudcat? Over my dead body!

-Joe-