I do believe we should let the Paltalk people know our opinions of their latest moneymaking scheme. However, I think Jon's right in guessing that Mudcatters don't form a sizable enough user group to sway Paltalk's thinking.

As far as the open vs. closed room argument, I can understand that we have members who prefer the relative 'safety' of the locked room. But I must state unequivocally that, as a Mudcat member, I would hate to see a room bearing the Mudcat name having to 'raise the drawbridge' because the tenth person had entered the room.

There are many safeguards available to both administrators and participants of open rooms. Administrators have the ability to remove mikes of those using the voice chat abusively. And all participants have the ability to ignore an abuser completely, merely by right-clicking on the offender's name in the room list and clicking 'Ignore in Group' in the drop down that appears. Many of the open rooms on Paltalk encourage live singing vs. karaoke and a number of these are well-administered, making them a pleasure in which to participate. In fact, my main disappointment with some of them is that I have to 'get in line' to perform, often with 6 or 7 performers ahead of me.

Please don't construe my post as an argument re: locked/open rooms. Although I prefer the open room for the diverse performances I've been privileged to hear, I understand the wish of some to start their performance 'careers' in an environment where everyone is known to them. My main concern, as stated above, is that Mudcat's name not be associated with a room which, by its very nature, is limited to the first ten to show up.

And Tyke, I doubt that Paltalk could bill Mudcat for any alleged commercial activity in a room. Their only alternative would be to request that the room's owner sign it up as a commercial room or have his/her ownership revoked. It's evident to me that Paltalk is going to have to at least break even on its service or it'll go the way of many others on the Web. I'm disappointed with their tactics, but I can understand the need that drives them.