i have defined folk songs and how new songs imo can possibly become folk songs, what is so funny is that my definition turns out to be very similiar to jims, but because I make it[ the so called dreaded cyber stalker], jim has to say that i have nothing of value to say, the joke is that since i am saying the same thing as him, that make his evaluation of no worth, its reminiscent of alice in wonderland.
so my evaluation was this when new songs get taken up by people who are not folk afficianados or who are not part of the folk revival and the singers assume they are traditional, that is my defintion of a new song possibly becoming a folk song , examples in my experience are dirty old town, fiddlers green, shoals of herring, caledonia.