I agree Jed,

I think it's just an influx of new posters who are here expressly for the politics, not the music, and they seem to be the kind of poster that now populates most internet forums. Sure the complex, volatile times have much to do with it. As PeterT said, when feeling impotent, people look for some outlet to express themselves through which they feel like they are being heard/feel like they matter (Hopefully I'm not mischaracterizing what he said).

But I have been wondering for some time now about the relative shrinking of the pool of participators here and on other forums (I will NOT say fora. What? as opposed to "Flauna"?). When I first found the mudcat I hardly ever noticed a crossover between posters here and at other music-related forums. Now I am getting the distinct impression that there are only about eleventy-four total participants on all the forums combined. When you add to that the repetitive nature of the nature of the posts, there's not tons of new blood infusing new thought into the mix.

As to incivility increasing here....
.....I think that earlier on there was a certain amount of mystery as to whether we would ever meet up and, in the flesh, share meals and a tune or two. With the hope for such a meeting being at least in the background of our intercourse, we were more civil (hell, I didn't want to piss off Big Mick --for example-- and find out that he really was BIG when I met him face to face :^)... now I don't give a damn -- I've met him and I'm betting I can out run 'im!).

There was also a certain amount of respect given to the unknown musicianship (something I think most of us respect here) -- much as I've heard many guitarist comment when they play out -- "I'm not nearly so cocky as I used to be since I figured out that, on any given night, there's a 16 year old kid in the audience who can play me under the table!".

Now, with those whom we are quite sure are accomplished musically, we are more civil. We guard our bitchery. But I think there is a growing sense here that there are (on a percetage of participation basis) quite a few less serious musicians here......or, if they are serious, they are not accomplished.

Thus, at least one more of the governors on our incivility has been removed.

Said more simply: If, before we hit the "submit" button we thought we were going to meet in person the person to whom we address our post the very next day...

OR we thought, before we hit the "submit" button, that the person to whom we are addressing our post was Jean Ritchie or Art Thieme (some REAL possibilities) or James Taylor, Paul Simon, Tim O'Brien, Rani Arbo, Alison Krauss (fill in the blank with a musician you admire)...

My guess is that you'd see a brand new civility around here.