I am always sorry to hear that someone has become disappointed with Mudcat because it really is a tremendous resource. The sophmoric manipulation by an anonymous poster has succeeded in infecting the body of discussion here but, when we log off Mudcat, we can go on with our lives, On or off mudcat, the anonymous one has to live with himself. You can imagine how much fun his life is if this is what he needs to spend hours doing. Consider. He has to read a lot of postings, compose answers, monitor the responses, invent new characters, refressh discussions that are sinking towards the bottom. In order to spend this amount of time, he has to have rather little going on in his life to make the investment of his time seem worthwhile. He will probably insist that he lives a busy, fulfilling life. Actually, I think he did a while back on one thread or other but given the amount of energy he puts into this, his claim rings a little hollow to my ears.

While I am on the topic, I think you can get a clearer idea of what he gets out of this if you go back ofver his posts from a while back, far enough back that I was stil reading threads over which he ahd taken control. He was exulting in how easy it was to get people fired up and that it was almost boringly predictable. Of course, if it was so boringly predictable, why would he continue? Perhaps, because he has other little opportunity to gain attention and he hungers for recognition that supports his view of himself as being superior to most people. However, he seems to have trouble in his life convincing people to share his view of himself.

I find that I am spending less time at Mudcat now but I expect that will change. I don't add anything to referesh Anonymous Poster threads whether he, the anonymopus one, stumbles onto a valid point or not. Discussing his points, reacting to his arguments which are offered only to confront and annoy only increases his emotional dividend in return for investment of his time.

My suggestion is, don't leave, just cut back on the time ou spend here and until the divisiveness caused by the anonymous troll subsides. He will eventually go away. He is a bit like a weed that thrives when watered with attention and he does bear bitter fruit.

IMHO

Sourdough