As people keep on saying, don't feed the trolls. In fact don't read them either is a good policy. Easier said than always done.

Reading this thread I was skipping the anonymous GUEST ones - but then there were posts from people I wanted to read responding to posts I'd been avoiding reading, so I had to read a couple of them to understand what they were on about. I think what Big Mick said in his last post says whatever needs saying about that particular irrelevance.

As for the decline from the Good Old Days - here is a link to the the time warp machine, which enables us to read old Mudcat pages from way back in the last millennium. And however far back you go, there are people writing posts about how it ain't what it used to be and the glory days are gone.

Which may be true, but I'm a bit sceptical. Things change and people move on, and there are always relatively few diamonds in the dust and there are always swine ready to complain about the qualities of the pearls. And the best bullshit is pretty rare as well. But we've still got diamonds and pearls and prime quality BS enough to keep the place going, and in pretty good shape.

Thanks to the people who keep it that way - Max and Joe and Jeff, for doing the work (and of course Dick and Susan for the DT, which is at the heart of it all), but also the regulars who keep it alive and wholesome. Not perfect (and nothing ever is), but healthy. And if I mentioned names I'd leave out others who also play a vital part in achieving this - as well as in the process inviting crass comments about Gangs of Twelve and Cliques. So thanks to the people who deserve thanking, which is the large majority of people posting regularly.