What made this last spat particularly painful is that for once it wasn't marauders trying to sabotage the place for entertainent, it was open dissension between people who play a valued part in keeping the Mudcat a good place.

GUESTS-who-don't-use-any-label sometimes set out to be a pain, and achieve that ambition - but I think we seem collectively to have found how not to let them wreck things too much.

I don't think restricting GUESTs to Lyric requesting could work anyway - everyone has to use a strange computer sometimes, and that means you are a GUEST on that occasion. Anyway, it'd be easy enough to stir up dissension of all kinds with a thread headed Lyric Request.

catspaw's advice above was right. The basic rule when trouble hits is, let it blow over, and then pick up the pieces. Once again. It's still pretty good, both the music and most of the other stuff.