Reading back through the whole of this thread, and noting that there are other threads on exactly the same topic, I'm aware that a whole range of viewpoints are being expressed from one extreme to the other, total tolerance and anything goes, right through to don't sing it at all if you can't learn it. Like most things the answer probably lies somewhere in the middle, and it also depends on locally accepted standards. One thing that can be done in attending a regular event is go along and see what is accepted for a few weeks before making decisions whether to take part or whether to decide what goes on is not for you. Or as has been said before, set up your own song event where you can set your own rules and standards.

Personally I try to be as tolerant as I can in these situations. There are all sorts of methods being used at singarounds I attend, and with new people or youngsters I'm happy for them to use whatever gives then confidence, but hope they will be encouraged by the majority who have learnt their songs and are getting more applause. I must admit however that I do get frustrated when the chap comes along to the same session every week and pulls out his folder and lays it on the table in front of him. However he is the only one at that session who does so.

Even the mobile phone scrolling has different levels. I certainly didn't object to 3 preteen girls who made their debut at a singaround and quite competently sang one of their pop songs. Who knows what this might lead to? However I was at one singaround in Cecil Sharp House a couple of years ago with a very high standard of singing, mostly unaccompanied, some professionals, when to round off the afternoon a lady was asked to sing, produced her mobile phone, began searching and scrolling, started to sing a song everybody there knew by heart, and kept losing her place and singing the same verses over and over. My family were there who are not died in the wool folkies, and they walked out!

The main quibble I have with those using folders, books, phones etc. is, as some here have said, the problem of falling standards. If it becomes the norm then that's me out of there. One would hope that if in a room full of people with folders one person fully competent gets a far better response, surely that should tell the others something.