What a pleasant surprise when I came back after a ten day break to Mudcat and there was no BS-thread among the first ten threads. I had a closer look and there was no BS even among the first twenty threads. I nearly started a thread about this rare occurence. But when I failed to spot a BS-thread even among the first thirty threads I got suspicious. I looked at the whole page and I saw that what I had presumed at first to be a change of minds was merely a change of format.

Nevertheless, it is a good change and I support it together with the thread consolidation policy. The thread consolidation policy may lead to questionable decisions in single cases, but on the whole it is a great help. Thanks for that effort.

I have learned here that stepping on peoples' toes sometimes by telling them that their PET-theme could do with less threads is worth the initial bad feelings in the long run. They go through the stages of indignation ("this is a free forum", "censorship") and misstating the intentions of the critcs ("why shouldn't we talk about this theme, it is relevant for musicians") until all (well, nearly all) of them realise that it is not the theme as such that bothers the other posters but their way of presentation. And then they change their ways.

Tell the people at the neighbouring table in a Cafe that they are too noisy they often jump on you at first (verbally) but, in the long run, most of them will make the Cafe more agreeable for others by calming down a bit.

Wolfgang