"I thought I'd at least ask people here if they think it futile to bother with Mudcat reforms at this point, or whether it really is time for those of us with a different vision of what Mudcat could be to just fade away?"

I assume you're talking about the way people behave here?

You'll have to get enough people to agree there is a problem. You'll have to determine what the specific problem/problems is/are. You'll have to get a majority to determine what behavioral changes are necessary to fix the problem. You'll have to convince all (or most) posters, members and guests alike, to behave the way the majority believes they should. You'll need some way to enforce these rules.

I don't know about anyone else, but I don't see any problem with starting another folk forum or e-mail list. If you really dislike it so much here, creating your own forum or list would make you a lot happier, and that's what it's all about, isn't it? If you hang around someplace you dislike, you'll wind up just getting more miserable. If you start a private list, you may have to think about whether it may be perceived as being even more elitist than a forum anyone can join. You probably won't have to deal with any complaints, though, since the complaintants won't be able to read or post messages.