Perhaps some degree of knowledge of what Mudcat was and of old contributers. Particulary the memory of the attitude I saw towards BruceO. He went over the top but to basically get "good riddance" for someone who had contributed so much, particularly in a society in which members seem to pride themselves as being so caring really was hard to swallow - perhaps caring people could have looked for reasons and means of helping.

Perhaps the knowledge that this forum could be made more accessible to 2 sides of a split without too much difficulty - after all, all it means is some skipping of threads is done automatically... Perhaps worse still, the belief that music tends to be the casualty. Perhaps worse still that the "rows" have existed from before my time and yet not even the "caring" members try to look at alternative solutions.

Perhaps the inabiltiy of Mudcat to fully utilise the resources it has availible. Perhaps worse still to mismanage what it has got. I don't know if I'm still there but my name may still be on the FAQ permathread as a tech helper. I'd go as far as to say that is an embarrasement to me. I'd have loved to have had the freedom to help a permathread owner make what they wanted but at the time, Clones were not able to do that...

Perhaps more than that, the knowledge that there are several excellent programmers in this forum. I'm not one of them and I don't know if they would give time for free but has anyone tried utilising this? All I do know is my offer of limited assistance in this area did not even produce the courtesy of a reply from Max.

Perhaps more and more, my frustration at going alone - something I never wanted to do but the gaps seem to get wider... Perhaps the unwillingness for anyone to even comment on an idea coming from me - it really feels like "your competing with Max so shut the fuck up..."

Perhaps the worst of all is simply that I see Mudcat as a place with people, many of who have time, abilities on offer. IMO if we really worked at what each one could offer, on the understandings of the problems of others and means of solving them, Mudcat rather than still being stuck with rows that are over 2 years old (and not of my creation - my line when I first started here is not the same as it is now - I couldn't understand the protests) could perhaps make a leap forward both in music and in community for ALL.

Jon