My experience is a little different to that of Guest above. Useful websites do get mentioned from time to time and I'd be pretty sure that just about everyone I've run into musically around Norfolk UK are aware of Mudcat. As I mostly go to instrumental sessions, JCs is more likely to get mentioned in conversation than MC though.

What I haven't known happen is discussion about online communities or say a collective effort to all become part of such a thing. I think most people I know would be taking advantage of web forums and other resources purely for information rather than community.

There could be people I know from this area who are members of Mudcat, it's not something I normally ask. The only "local" person I do know is a member last posted here in Jan 2000.

Overall, although I happen to enjoy message boards and online communities, I believe it's up to individuals to find out what they like and can't convince myself that trying to create catter-rich communities is a good idea. Imagine what would happen from the UK alone if every major town/city/area became like the Hull/Yorkshire crowd and each ran their own regional threads, including friendly chatter like the PTH ones...

Please don't missunderstand my last bit. I've have met and got on well with some of the above crowd - I even had the pleasure of joining Greg/Skipjack for a pint and some tunes in Norwich last night, quite liked providing a temp home for PTH during the last 2 periods of MC breakdowns, etc. I'm just trying to think on the implications of such things becoming more widespread.