This is the second time I've posted one of these but this time it is in acrimonious circumstances although it may be greeted with cheers from many departments... I've been told to (quote) "fuck off" by Max who will never speak to me again (not that he ever did :-) ) so that is the end.

Where does that leave me and the Annexe, etc.?

Max seems to hate the Annexe (he said he will never support it although he of course did use it to post info when he had problems during his move) but Pip loves it and feels that she has made many friends there. To that end, I am transferring ownership and control of the Annexe to Pip (she is only my mother and doesn't neccessarily agree with any of my thoughts and should not be dragged into any of my own issues) although obviously I am going to have to help her with the technical side. Other than that, it is entirely hers, her choice who she wants to open it to, what purposes she wants it for, etc. and she has to see where it goes.

As for me, I intend starting another folk forum which I hope to have running within 2 weeks but it could be a little longer as I need a new domain, probably swap domain names as I think it would be easier for Pip if she wasn't jonbanjo.com and have a bit of programming to do...

The site will be member only and although there will be a small community element, it will aim to focus on Music and not get overloaded or obscured by "shatner threads", etc. It will also contain a database for traditional songs to be built from scratch by interested parties. The aim here will be to provide accuracy, quality, detailed notes on the songs if possible and to provide tunes in ABC format. I'm hoping that I will also be able to generate Midi and Gif formats from the ABC.

I am open to any suggestions and if anyone feels they have anything to offer in terms of suggestions or maybe later development, or moderating or admin and are willing to work as a team, perhaps even leading a team within the forum structure, please feel free to contact me at jon@jonbanjo.com.

Whether the site takes off or not remains to be seen but I feel it is worth a try and I am optimistic, and I feel that I will be able to offer facilities that Mudcat doesn't or can (or will) not. I also dont have the worries of 1Gb of database space, 1/2 of which is dross or of wasted bandwidth on "shatner", "NYTTCS", etc. to consider so I should be able to operate on a very low budget.

Max seems to have thought my motives were transparent, and I'm now ending up trying to do what I suspect many thought I wanted here, when in fact I'm doing something I never wanted... rather, that I feel my hand has been forced and I've nowhere else to go...

If my new site does gain some support, in a perverse sort of way, I hope Max does respond to the "fight" (something Max suggested in a PM without any suggestion of me starting up something new) and he develops new features at Mudcat to counter any development efforts I make and he adopts more of a team work approach, etc. I may not be welcome here but people here would still gain and my criticisms of Mudcat, of course, would then have been vindicated as Max will have proved that he could (and should) have done more all along the line.

Jon