With some browsers, in some versions, if you don't show mudcat.org as a "trusted site" your browser will save a cookie only as a "temporary" one, and it will go away, usually when you shut down the browser.

Some browsers can also be set to "clear history" when you close the browser. "Advanced users" learn how to clear what's necessary only when they've visited embarassing places, but it could be a default setting for some who "don't care who knows."

A few anti-malware programs may delete cookies - and "other stuff" - in unknown and unpredictable ways. Most such have settings that let you control them, but there are no consistent methods that are generally applicable.

If you use a "Disk Cleanup," especially via some add-on junkware, you may lose cookies unexpectedly.

The Disk Cleanup in Windows Operating Systems should show you a list of objects to be deleted so that you can check or uncheck individual kinds of things for deletion. If you've checked "cookies" (intentionally or inadvertently) the program will continue deleting them on subsequent runs, until you change the check mark.

A "Disk Cleanup" shortcut in the Tools for some IE versions doesn't pause to let you check things and may give unpredictable results. Recent IE versions don't delete cookies from "trusted sites" but that may vary depending on the version used. Other browsers might require you to specify what to do.

Closing IE and using the Cleanup you get by right-clicking your System Drive (usually C:\) in Windows Explorer, clicking Properties, and then the button on the General tab is recommended, since no cleanup utility can delete any open file. Running the cleanup while IE is open can leave trash that IE was still using, although usually not much.

John