*sigh*... the 'remark' could have been phrased better, perhaps...... but nothing changes the fact that this is an open site, where the discussion of folk music is the 'at heart' central theme, but where all sorts of music ... and NON-music themes appear.

To provide a metaphor, the FSGW Getaway is 'at heart' an event for members of the Greater Washington D.C. club.......... but which over the years has included friends from first other places on the East coast of the US, then from other areas, and once the WWW and Mudcat came on the scene, from all over the world- especially from the UK!
This has been MUCH to FSGWs benefit... and so has the participation of people from all over the world in Mudcat's forum.... much to Mudcat's benefit.
The UK is not the US... and because of cultural & demographic variables too complex to specify, members (and "Guests") from the UK often use the site to argue, banter,entertain, complain, tease, pontificate, elucidate, (and in certain cases, gesticulate) about topics that bewilder and bemuse and confuse we poor colonials. So what? It is STILL an open forum, and though *I*... to speak only for myself... am sometimes peeved at obscure threads & references about UK only topics... *shrug*... it ain't really a serious thing. I survive, and am often educated by them. It is also the case that some topics are **universal**, even if the specific issue IS UK related..(i.e. abuse of clergy, or taxation, or immigration.)

We can debate forever (seems like it, hmmm?) about who or what is 'driving' who or what 'away' from Mudcat, but as Yogi Berra (or Casey Stengel) is supposed to have said, "If people are gonna stay away in droves, you can't force 'em!"

...and as I've heard it said from that side of the Big Pond.. "Don't get yer knickers in a twist."