I have maintained from the begining that we are a community of musicians, whose main focus is folk and blues music. As in any community, as the diversity of the group expands, and as many voices and ideas are heard, we have begun to breakdown into "factions" as we face certain issues. The key is to not let the factions fracture the whole. A successful community learns that diversity of thought is to be revelled in. That is what I meant when I said "sorry you don't get it". I no longer can read all the threads, so I rely on the title of the thread, who the author is, and intuition to help me choose which I read. If you long for the good old days when we could read all the threads and know all the contributors, then limit the amount of chat. We will then become a boring little town where someone will remember the lyrics and chords to most every folk/blues song that ever was written. And we will be like anyone of a hundred sites on the Net. And, I would suggest, we would lose some of our most interesting citizens. It is exactly that which some of you seek to limit that keeps us vibrant and makes us unique. The "sappy" non-musical comments that have been mentioned, I will wager, will spawn music. I will bet money that any number of 'Catters have been inspired to write songs based on topics from our non-musical conversations, arguments, silliness and love for one another. Music is moral law, said the philosopher. And we all have been blessed to help in the administration of that law. To use an analogy, could you imagine a society where the law was administered by robots? What I am trying to say is that without the human context of understanding, that which we rely on for protection would quickly become repressive. And so it is with the music, the moral law, that we seek to administer. These discussions, silliness, banter and outright disagreements (such as my recent encounter with Sapper, whom I have found to be a welcome addition to our town) have actually made me a better and more rounded interpreter of the stories I sing.

And as we all have said, if you discover a thread is not to your taste, don't read it. I do it all the time.

All the best,

Mick