Some of you make too much of "nationality." Identifying troublemakers sometimes falls to geography. This is Silas' sleight of hand to distract from his nonsense, and no apologies are forthcoming because his demand (and his thread) is unreasonable. There are cultural differences that contribute, but not exclusively. Just as there is a set in the UK who make trouble, there is also a set in the US who make trouble. It is the UK group who drew the long straw this time. Don't shoot the messenger.

I also have been here a long time, and have enjoyed the Mudcat village. Troublemakers are slinging mud and pointing fingers when they get their hands slapped. Oh, but they want to fire a mod who found their behavior unacceptable and deleted a post! Let's see - Lizzie goes berserk, Silas and punkfolkrocker take a few swings (how many names do you use here at Mudcat, sockpuppet p-rocker? Let me count them?) and others who really have rarely thought about it weigh in. It's an open forum, but you get what you pay for.

If visitors to this thread are taking only what they see here at face value, they're not getting the entire story. If you were moderators, you'd know that we have to wade through all of this shit and pay more attention to the hot button topics. Frankly, I'm disappointed that a friend started a thread that fed into this one. Moderators see the connecting links when they're looking at the whole picture. They read far more threads than most mudcatters, they rarely comment, and when they do, they're members of the community who may comment if they wish.

There have been a lot of cheap shots in this thread, made by people who seem confident that they not only can make them, but that their rank words will stay put. Guess what - that's part of the U.S. influence, freedom of speech, as long as it isn't hate speech or outright defamation. Part of being a moderator means you can't take it personally, and you don't take out every posted instance where your name is besmirched by someone who who disagrees with you. Someone who feels fully entitled to stand on their soapbox and be unpleasant is allowed more latitude here than most individuals would be given in other moderated forums.

Some of you spend too much time online, too much time looking for flaws so you can be social pedants, calling into view anyone else who's in disagreement with you. You're biting the Mudcat hand that feeds you - this is a site free to use, open to all. Primarily English speaking, owned by an individual with an altruistic view of the world of music. Civil discourse is the goal.