I just want to say, look on the plus side Max. Just see how many of the current threads are performing a valuable task in diseminating information, keeping people in touch, helping to organise events (just look at the various Stony Stratford threads - to find a success story) and all the other wonderful things that are possible because of your creation. Don't let the small percentage of "Unwanted Guests" spoil all that. If you are forced to close or make drastic changes to "The Cat" then you will have handed a victory to those very people. Speaking as a web user for many years, it was only after reading threads on "The Cat" that I enquired into the "netiquette" section to find out the definitions of "Trolls" and "Flamers" - they're not regular terms or problems for most of us in the UK. I think that the proliferation of threads on the subject just makes the problem worse -it's very like a virus reproducing itself.

Let's all just get on with ENJOYING "The Cat" and all the benefits that it brings.


Jabjo, depending on how it was implemented, the IP address tracking could present problems to me when I am logged in from work as I am now. Due to our network, the IP address is constantly changing - which means that I can't login to my online banking account from here. I could find that I have the same problems with "The Cat"