BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery

Subject: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 12:53 PM

This thread will probably raise a huge fight but I am hoping it doesn't.

I am a relatively new cat in the yard. And I have met and welcomed a new kitten or two MC.

Something is perplexing us. Is it common for some oldtime Catters to wander into threads, leave a barbed (mean spirited) and sometimes personally directed comment then wander off again?

Just something us newbies have noticed, spats aside, that we sometimes get clobbered by a veteran Cat, for no apparent reason.

Are we sniffing around the wrong litterboxes (threads)? Are we being too cute/clever or not cute/clever enough?

Can anyone educate us little 'uns about the the rules, dangers, best practices, etc. of playing in Mudcat? We really do like it here, but some of the Big Cats are scary.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery?
From: gnu
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 01:01 PM

Well, if and when I ever do that, feel free to PM me and give me a blast.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery?
From: Big Mick
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 01:03 PM

Don't be scared would be the first rule.

I am not sure of the incidents you refer to, but sometimes us old timers forget that folks are new. And sometimes you little purrers forget that we have discussed damn near everything to be discussed several times over. And other times, a young'un or an old'un is just in an ornery mood, and says things they later regret. It is part of what makes Mudcat so spayshul, cause it is just a village on the www. Folks have good days and bad days.

I guess the best rule is to try to treat one another with respect, argue your points with passion, but remember that a real live person is on the other end. When (not if) you blow it and get mean spirited, and a few days later you realize it, do what decent folks do. Apologize and get back to the discussion.

Above all, make music.

I never said "welcome" to you btw. So welcome to our little village. Learn to use the search engine and filters, make purchases whenever possible through the links to Amazon et al so it helps support the place, and contribute.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery?
From: gnu
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 01:04 PM

Don't EVER take anything I say seriously. Unless I am being serious.

(Trite? Moi?)

Subject: RE: BS: RULES FOR KITTENS IN MUDCATTERY?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 01:09 PM

I guess whenever we join a new group.. there are those who will have been around a long time and have developed a certain persona of their own. When I first arrived here with my Christian views and attitudes I was attacked/criticised/hounded and could easily have made a fairly swift exit. I felt sort of new but unwanted.. even though I had been offered a welcome by some either by pm or in threads. Can I suggest that there are no 'rules' as such, for this sort of rift but that time and earning of respect in any group situation brings a kind of acceptance and even cohesion. Being new is not easy when joining a group but you either stick it out, learning as you go and accepting people for who they are on the 'cat'. or you make an exit with your tail between your legs.
Welcome to a wonderful site for learning and contributing to threads about about Folk music and a diversity of moods/attitudes/behaviours from the Folkies here and thought provoking text.
Best wishes, Mike.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Becca72
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 01:09 PM

From time to time there is some hissing, spitting and back-arching but for the most part this is a pretty easy place to hang out. Don't let the snarky comments get to you.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 01:13 PM

Consider yourself welcome. Feel to home.

Every single one of those "big" catters was once uncertain and wondering whether he/she was acceptable. Turned out they all were. In the whole history of this place there have been no more than five people out of thousands who were so adamantly anti-social that they were not acceptable. This community in general has a high tolerance of eccentricity.

If someone says something to you you feel is inordinately derogatory, you have the option of telling them to piss off, or you have the option of explaining yourself, or you have an even better option of coming up with some really funny and creative way of making their grumpiness appear as stupid as it is.

But you do not need to shut up or pull in your horns, especially if there is a real point to the conversation. If it's just playing the dozens, you have the choice of just saying "Pffffft" and walking off to some more interesting thread.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 01:14 PM

TY Mick for the advice and encouragement and especially for fixing the thread title.

I hope old cats come to this thread and offer constructive and welcoming comment. If not that they at least show a little of themselves so Kittens get to understand the personalities better without being threatend.

Claws are retracted or I would cross 'em. I will be a Siamese cat and cross my eyes for luck instead.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 01:52 PM

Some people are impolite. That will never change. The internet somehow brings out the worst in some people. Mudcat is worse than most discussion forums because the owner has decided that editing must be very light-handed and only the worst, most egregiously offensive messages will be deleted.

We have discussed this topic to death, and no matter what we say, the impolite people won't change their habits and won't go away. Arguing with them only makes them worse. The best thing to do is ignore them. Note who the impolite people are and don't respond to them at all.

Try not to let them discourage you. You will find plenty of other polite friendly people to discuss things with.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 02:00 PM

ummm... Thank you Jim. I just learned a very valuble lesson from that somewhat equivocal advice. I will try not to denegrate my host owner and not put down the forum in which I play, as I am as at least as responsible for what happens here as everyone else.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Alice
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 02:03 PM

Hey, Virginia, don't remember if I've said welcome to mudcat yet, but.... Welcome to Mudcat!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 02:12 PM

VirginiaTam: I don't get it. Are you trying to be ironic? What was equivocal about my advice?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 02:22 PM

>>I am a relatively new cat in the yard. And I have met and welcomed a new kitten or two MC.

Something is perplexing us. Is it common for some oldtime Catters to wander into threads, leave a barbed (mean spirited) and sometimes personally directed comment then wander off again?

Just something us newbies have noticed, spats aside, that we sometimes get clobbered by a veteran Cat, for no apparent reason. <<

I've been a MudCatter for about 7 years, as far as I know it has always been thus. I like your analogy. It puts things in perspective for me. In real life, mother cats often take whacks at their playing kittens for no other apparent reason than their feline nature.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 02:29 PM

Oh Dear! I really did not mean for this thread to be an invitation to meet and welcome me.

Just that some of us new peeps have been wondering (in the background pms and emails) about some behaviours here.   We want to positively contribute, but feel perhaps there are somethings we need to know.

So if Old Deuteronomy, Demeter, Gus, Grizabella, and the others will please come forward and teach us how to be jellicle.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 02:35 PM

Jim

I don't know how to put this any more kindly. I found your advice equivocal in that it was both positive (helpful) and negative (not helpful).

The last thing I want is for this thread to devolve into a finger pointing, name calling blame fest.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Morticia
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 02:36 PM

There is no excuse for bad manners irrespective of how long someone has been here and you are as entitled to an opinion as anyone else. This site would fizzle out entirely if we didn't get new blood from time to time and it would become 'old timers' to remember that.

Having said that, the humour can get a little funky in here sometimes, are you sure whoever it was wasn't just teasing?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Megan L
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 02:39 PM

Theres an auld Scots proverb "Nippin an scartin's a Scots wooin"

Mind you occassionally a kitten needs a cloored lug or a skelped bahookie tae learn tae mind its manners.

Awra best
Meg

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 02:52 PM

Remember the great Rumpuscat!

And there are several Rum Tum Tuggers.

Shout back (but you know that).

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 02:59 PM

Richard- What are you doin here? Aren't you supposed to be at Linda's party?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 03:07 PM

VirginiaTam: Being partly positive and partly negative is not the same thing as being "equivocal."

And even negative advice ("Don't do this—") can be helpful. Mine was certainly intended to be helpful.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Bee
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 03:12 PM

Virginia, aside from a few grumpy old (or young..ish) catters, there's also a bit of a cultural divide at times, I think. Sometimes I've misconstrued a friendly or at least neutral comment because I'm not used to the linguistic mannerisms of people from various countries and districts. Best to think about a comment that dismays or puzzles until you can figure out the intent.

I try not to be unpleasant, but some would disagree bytimes.

And welcome, anyway - hope I haven't been a source of discomfort to you!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 03:15 PM

The overall reception of people here to my own newness has been pretty good. There is an awful lot of flaming on the Cat though. And it's bluddy pointless moody rubbish for the most part.

I think in general, a lot of established forums, rather like 'old boys clubs' can feel affronted at Jack the Lad stumbling in with his his strange new Jazzamataz, coctails and loose women. I've certainly experienced it elsewhere.

I don't really have anything sensible to add tonight accept that fun is always a good thing, but especially when no-one is getting hurt.

Thus stupid worthless banter is to ever be saluted and celebrated as the highest epitomy of human intelligence. Meaning of course: Pure Senseless Pleasure for no other purpose than its for It's Own Sake (hurried voiceover of small-print: "which does not result in pregnancy or other real worldy inconvenience.")

Why do we have kittens, if not to pleasingly riot and piddle all over the place? >mews cutely and bites lightly with tiny, but terribly sharp teeth<

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 03:27 PM

The equivocation was inferred and erroneously applied by me then. Another lesson learned.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 03:35 PM

Which one are you Richard?

I want to be a Grizella but I am more like Jenny enny dots. The mice and cockroaches just want constructive employment. That's what makes a gumby cat.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 03:49 PM

Is it common for some oldtime Catters to wander into threads, leave a barbed (mean spirited) and sometimes personally directed comment then wander off again?

Sometimes it's just hard to tell the diff in tone between a jest and a barb. On the other hand, there is also an annual winter madness (see old threads on Silly Season). IMO and YMMV.

Best advice I can offer is to PM a MudBud whenever you are not sure how to take something. Pick a few you trust and who you think you "read" accurately, and get a coupla viewpoints via PM as needed, then go with your own best thinking.

And be trustworthy yourself. Decline fights, shit-stirring, mudslinging, and gossip. Hard to do! :~) When tempted, try to do those in PMs too, not out ion the threads. But in winter madness it can be hard to realize that's what we're doing.

Finally, the FAQ is always useful to read and a $5 whine fee is always welcome (see Auction).

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 04:02 PM

There are some less flippant responses to VTams opening question, which I didn't comment on earlier. But deserve further thought - when I'm in a 'further thought' rather than a 'retrogressive thought' state of mind.... Further days may follow, in which further thoughts may follow. All supposing there is a thought thing what still thinks such things. And of course I have already scripted "The Thing What Thought Stuff" (an automatically kitten mutilating film!)

The Cat is nevertheless full of flaming arseholes of course. Though I suspect some of Spaws fart-lighting schizoid sub-personalities may be to blame for that one... ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Ebbie
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 04:15 PM

My dog is not a cat, obviously, but her quirks may be applicable here. She likes other dogs and welcomes their presence but when it comes to a young, rambunctious one she is a fixer: She takes it upon herself to teach the young'un what, in her view, is acceptable; she snaps and barks and spins around. She never harms the pup physically but she may well scar it for life psychologically *g*. The pups' reactions vary- some cringe away, some bounce around begging her to lighten up and play, some growl.

Insert 'new' for 'young' and you got it. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 04:23 PM

creeps sake.. The original question culminated out of not only a coule of bad experiences but perceptions by others that MC is rife with grumpy old man syndrome.

I do use the search tool, I do use the FAQ, I (now) do track some posters to get an idea of their personality before commenting on things they've said, so I can make an informed decision about whether or not I want to deal with resultant grief.

Maybe I just wanted to kindly point out to veterans (without rubbing nose in the shit) that some behaviour is pretty awful and childish.

Moonlight... turn your face to the moonlight. If you find there the meaning of what happiness is, then your new life will begin.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: peregrina
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 04:55 PM

It seems odd to me that quite a few posts elaborate the metaphor to blame the kittens...and yet...
there haven't really been many obstreperous guests recently, so a tinge of the the old, old thing of blaming outsiders or the target?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 04:57 PM

"Maybe I just wanted to kindly point out to veterans (without rubbing nose in the shit) that some behaviour is pretty awful and childish."

Well there's a superior strain of Mudcat of course, wot knows it awl, and is beyond reproach. This is by far the cleverest mythical Mudcat wat ever was. They slag everyone else orf, and know lots, but never give any of their mythical magical knowings away. Proper superior folk they is. And they prove they are superior, by slagging everyone else orf. Pity their superior know-stuff gets lost like unicorn Mudcat dung in a common awld Mudcat dunghill. Cos if it didn't we mite awl be brilliant Mudcritters equal even to they...

Jeez reminds me o' Genesis!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 05:16 PM

The sad fact of the matter is that those most in need of chastisement are often least likely to recognize themselves, and subtlety, especially, will get you nowhere...

Sounds like you've got the survival basics sussed out, though. Welcome to the zoo!

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 05:20 PM

Maybe I just wanted to kindly point out to veterans (without rubbing nose in the shit) that some behaviour is pretty awful and childish.


I'm sorry to hear that. I thought you were asking guidance for yourself, and replied from that perception.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 05:28 PM

ok ok ok... I am gonna calm down and beg for calm from others.

The thing is that people sometimes don't recognise when they are being difficult, myself included.

Sometimes people don't care and we should just not give their flaming the oxygen of attention.

Probably none of habitual grumps will peek into this thread or if they do will not clue into own behaviour and how it is perceived.

But those of us who do, let's contribute positively now. No more blaming, or whining or whinging - or I will refer you to WYSIWIG and her $5 fee (proceeds to benefit MudCat after 62% tax and administration)

Think I would like to make this a get to know each other thread, now.

Especially since my memory book thread died the death.

If it cannot be, then please please just let this thread fall off the board.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 05:31 PM

If you feel you've been targeted for a personal attack, PM Joe Offer and he'll be happy to look at it and rap the nose of the kitty that dood it.

There are other Joe Clones that may step in from time to time, if they also feel the attacks are personal and provocative but Joe is the head Honcho.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: gnu
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 06:19 PM

VTam... "Probably none of habitual grumps will peek into this thread or if they do will not clue into own behaviour and how it is perceived."

I'll take that as a compliment.

As for this thread falling off the board, I think it should be linked to in the threads meant for newbies to read. It's well worth reading... for newbies and for us old grumps.

Have fun and feed not the trolls (see the newbie threads).

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: paula t
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 08:12 PM

I think you have to take the rough with the smooth.

Occasionally someone will take the opportunity to make a personal attack because they don't agree with your opinion and can't think of an intelligent response.This happened to me a few months ago. I chose to be the grown up and leave the thread. This is always an option- because life's too short to get stressed out about a forum which is supposed to be interesting and entertaining .A short while later, someone left me a very reassuring and kind message on my page - which restored my faith in Mudcat and put things into perspective for me.Now I often read threads but don't post when I can see where they are going.There are individuals who seem to thrive on a"Darned good argument" and obviously enjoy it. Good luck to them,if that's what they enjoy.Mudcat is doing them a valuable service.

Enjoy the cut and thrust of the site!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: maire-aine
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 08:26 PM

I came here for the music, and that was all I was expecting. Along the way, I met (some in person, some only online) some wonderful folks. In general, I keep to myself, because I read some of the controversial threads, but don't post there. Most of the time, I figure life is too short to bother. Except for a few "rah-rahs" for our Red Wings, I keep my opinions to myself. But you guys that want to discuss/argue/whatever, you go for it.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 08:30 PM

I am definitely grumpy. It takes time to get grumpy. It's almost a rank.

I might like to be MacAvity, but I doubt my capability.

I may not have read VT's every post, but I don't think I have ever seen anyone really get umpty with her (you).

This place is very polite compared to say Turbobricks (well, now that the original Gargoyle and Martin Gobson and Cli*ton Hammond are gone, and saving the C*ntess who can be very spiky).

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 08:45 PM

>The sad fact of the matter is that those most in need of chastisement are often least likely to recognize themselves, and subtlety, especially, will get you nowhere...<

Damned straight. (And they often cohere to each other.)

Nothing to be done on an ongoing basis. If you waste your mental energy focusing on that you miss the Enlightenment. It's a lot like panning for gold, I think.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 10:51 PM

Something is perplexing us. Is it common for some oldtime Catters to wander into threads, leave a barbed (mean spirited) and sometimes personally directed comment then wander off again?

Just something us newbies have noticed, spats aside, that we sometimes get clobbered by a veteran Cat, for no apparent reason.

I missed this thread earlier... Well, yes, every newcomer here has probably experienced what you are alluding to, I know I did when I first arrived here. And a lot of us oldtimers sometimes get combative and snippy over this or that too. It's the club thing. You will find that the same thing happens in 3-D life too, if you're a newcomer to a club or a long-established social scene of some kind.

The veterans will share some strange humor that you don't understand at all. You may think they are quarreling when they are just goofing around, pretending to pick on each other...just doing it for laughs...and that may be clear to them, but not to a newcomer.

Then there are certain old feuds or sore points (specially in politics) that come up again and again between certain individuals, and this can trigger some nasty exchanges. Anything, for instance, that has to do with discussing Israel and the Arab world...or the Democrats and the Republicans...or the Irish troubles...or USA foreign policy...or religion and atheism...OUCH!!! All that stuff is just like a minefield. One is often best off to just avoid discussing it at all, but some of us can't resist. Any newbie who gets involved in one of those threads may get a shock at the stuff that starts flying back and forth across no-man's-land.

My best advice is, try to maintain a sense of humor as well as a sense of detachment, and as time goes by you will get more comfortable with the whole scene, hopefully, and you'll also begin to understand the "in jokes" and more bizarre stuff that goes on here. Then you won't be a newbie any longer.

Tip: Amos and Rapaire and I insult each other frequently on certain threads. We do it strictly for laughs, because we're friends. It's just a big long running joke, that's all. Same goes for the ludicrous stuff that Catspaw49 posts with all the bad language. He's a lovely guy, and we all know it, and he pretends to be a rude idiot because it's funny...since he really isn't like that at all in real life.

And there are other things like that going on too. It takes awhile to figure them out, that's all.

There's also some genuinely mean-spirited stuff that goes around now and then here, and that can hurt. But remember this: it's only the Internet, so don't sweat it. Take a look at the vicious and stupid stuff that gets posted under so many Youtube videos by people who can't even spell half-decently or express themselves in a semi-human manner, and you will begin to appreciate that Mudcat Cafe isn't so bad after all...for the Internet. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Genie
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 11:03 PM

Hi, VT,
Grisabella (at my house) says welcome to the Mudcat house.   She's still trying to teach me to be jellicle.

I got my nose swatted (pointedly but not too painfully) when I first ventured to post here, being quite new to online message boards, period.   And occasionally I get swipes taken at me (as I'm sure happens to everyone else) -- sometimes perhaps with the swatter not even realizing I was the target.   But as other cats have said, you just swat back, say ouch and move on, or maybe even laugh it off.   Very few catters try to be mean (even though a few do seem to get off on curmudging just for its own sake).

Oh, and even without the censorship, I find Mudcat far more friendly and civilized than a lot of other sites I've visited.

Genie

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 11:16 PM

This was the first online message board or internet forum I EVER participated in, and I sure didn't know what to expect at the beginning, but for the most part it's been a good experience. It has taught me quite a bit about not letting my buttons get pushed too easily by people I can't see and may never meet.... ;-) (though I have met a few of them since)

There's also a sort of multicultural thing happening here...there's the UK crowd, who are one notable group...then there are the Americans (quite different from the UK people)...then there are the Canadians (of which I am one)...then there's the Aussies...and the Irish...and then there are all the rest of the people scattered around hither and yon around the world. Each identifiable group seems to have its own particular foibles, issues, hangups, and ways of having fun. It's hard to figure out at first, and no one has provided a racing form or a program to explain it all...so you've got to sort of learn as you go along.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 11:33 PM

Reminds me of "Life is not a movie, there is no script.":-) Or something like that.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Jan 09 - 11:37 PM

I forgot to say, VTam, at first I thought this was going to be about children coming to the website, as we do have a children's section and some have been known to call their children Mudkittens.:-)

Also, I am one of the moderators, what we call "joe clones" because we once started out as that. Joe being "Joe Offer." Please don't hesitate to PM me if you ever have any concerns or problems.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Azizi
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 12:03 AM

Jim, in your comment of 03 Jan 09 - 01:52 PM, you wrote that that "the impolite people won't change their habits and won't go away". Perhaps that's true, though I suppose that there is always hope that a person might change his or her ways. However, I disagree with your position that it's always the best to ignore and not respond back to an impolite person.

Just as in face to face situations, it seems to me that how a person responds to online "impoliteness" should be determined on a case by case basis. Sometimes it's best to let a remark go. At other times it's best to address the remark without anger, perhaps with {attempts at} humor or wit, or perhaps with a firm, succient comment. Other times, it's best to let your controlled anger show. }Note that I don't think it's ever best to let your anger take control of you}.

There are any number of other ways that a person could intelligently address what she or he considers to be an attack. In my opinion, sometimes it may be the best choice to let the attacking person or persons know that you will and can defend yourself=with {hopefully} well chosen words.

I believe that there are times that it's best to let the person attacking you know that you choose not to respond to him or her on that thread at that time or perhaps at any other time on that thread. Sometimes it's best to just leave the thread. I have used all of these strategies at one time or another. And if a person follows you from one thread to another bringing up the same or similar points that you chose not to argue, then-based on all kinds of variables, you have to decide what is the best action or non-action for you to take. strategy

In a Mudcat thread I started a few years ago about responses to what I {and others} considered to be racism on Mudcat threads, I pointed out that it is important to any person so targeted to know that there are people who that person can count on for support-people who proactively spoke out in a supportive manner. It seems to me that at least some of the time, if there is a person being targeted on a Mudcat thread, because of race, ethnicity, nationality, personality, religion, or for what ever reason, other people on that thread should not ignore that maltreatment. Nor should they always wait for that person who is being targeted to defend himself or herself.

It seems to me that it reflects poorly on our community if the burden of addressing ill treatment always falls on the person or persons being targeted. Certainly, if this were the case, I would not want to be a part of such a community. Just as Mudcatters has made it known by their comments within threads that they don't tolerate racism and prejudice, I believe that when we Mudcatters, {veteran members, veteran guests, and newbies} see a person being treated rudely or spitefully on public threads by another persons or persons , we shouldn't just try to ignore that behaviour, but should speak out, and let the person/s doing that know that such behaviour is unacceptable.

Sometimes this might work, and sometimes not. Sometimes pms to the offending person might be warranted and/or alerting Mudcat moderators about the incident or patterns of incidences that we have noticed. But if people don't never speak out on the public threads when such offensive behaviour occurs, then that sends negative messages not only to other oeople posting to the thread, but also to people reading that thread now and potentially in the future.

I pray and hope that I make the right choices when faced with what I consider to be others' negative statements and behaviour. And, if I realize that I've make the wrong choice/s, I pray and hope that I am woman enough to own up to my mistakes, both publicly and privately through the pm system, and that I do whatever I can to rectify my misjudgement/s.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: open mike
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 01:00 AM

some trolls and flamers come here just to scratch around in the cat box i think. and scatter the litter around. some times there are offensive comments thrown about, too. There used to be a "help"
forum where you could send alerts about offensive or rude comments.

non-members are still allowed to post to threads, but cannot enter the chat room or send personal messages. They're off limits in some
places due to the trouble they can, and do, cause.

hang in there and take it all with grain of salt.

and, oh, by the way, welcome.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 04:25 AM

Thank you to everyone who has contributed. As I said it is not only at me and not always specifically directed negativity. All your words are encouraging.

It might be useful to have a link to moderators for the newbies in the FAQ area. We don't know who they are. Maybe it is there already. My plan for today is to go through the FAQ area more thoroughly. It is so easy to jump into this forum with both feet, not realising you may be landing on someone's gouty toe.

....if a person follows you from one thread to another bringing up the same or similar points....

Azizi, that's a bit scary. One who contacted me mentioned being stalked and felt racism was suspected. I am not sure I understood this person correctly and there wasn't much exchange. Just one of those things that lended to the creation of this thread.

For my part, I have to agree with the light-handed approach to moderation of the threads. If I felt that moderators were cleaning up after us, it would feel too much like big brother is watching and the free exchange would die.

When opinions are stated in even impolite, and/or bigoted ways, we all find out about each other. As well, we learn something about ourselves through our reactions.

This has to be the best tool for helping us open closed minds (our own as well as another's), and for teaching us to not only tolerate but embrace everyone's right to opinion. Maybe we will even change our opinions as we learn.

In future, if I feel put upon, I will try to remember to check out the person's other posts, learn who they are in context to others before I react. I will offer the same advice to others who contact me with anxieties.

I hope I grow up to be a gentle, helpful, Jellicle Cat.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 08:44 AM

"In future, if I feel put upon, I will try to remember to check out the person's other posts, learn who they are in context to others before I react. I will offer the same advice to others who contact me with anxieties."

That's not such a bad idea, because there are a lot of people that are hard to identify. Though strong characters are fairly recognisable from their distinctive and consistant style and thus not too tricky to read (implying they are therefore also fairly easy to avoid), there are akin to most fora, still far more anonymous sounding members who while they do not appear to have much of interest (either silly or sensible) to contribute, nevertheless suddenly appear out of seeming no-where for a quite unexpected sarcastic little snipe at someone else.

This is by far one of the the most dull-witted forms of 'contribution' going on any internet forum, and at best implies a complacent self-satisfied contentment with having hung around like a limp sock long enough to have earned the right to ocassionally bitch. It is also cowardly, because these contributers are not only dull, but too nervous to express a genuine thought or opinion about anything, and thereby risk icurring the same reaction upon themselves.

If I get flamed, there are about four ways I tend to deal with it:
The First is by far the most usual and sensible, and involves ignoring and walking away (this is newby me being good).
The Second is referring them to Jane Austen for no-doubt well needed lessons in how to compose a truly witty sarcastic put-down. (me irritated now and offering an open invitation to flame war goto 4) The third is to tell them to "Fuck-Off and go flame someone who actually gives a shit." (annoyed but far too bored for 2, Goto 1)
And the Fourth, by far the most exhausting and childish, is to actively demonstrate what a bore they are by engaging in flame war, verbally pull their pants down and do a little jig around them (only ever engaged in for the sheer bloody minded hell of it of course, and when no longer a newby...)

Most of the Catdudes that I've virtually rubbed up against thus far, have I must say been great. Lots of good humour, lots of positive support for my new interest, lots of friendly welcome.

It is however a shame that some of the most strongly helpful and experience-based advice I recieved for some of my early questions, was via PM's directly to me in order to bypass the childish squabblings in the flaming gallery of the upstairs public forum.

And I've had a few similar PM responses to questions which while I am most thankful for the advice and supportive gestures, it is a pity that the 'flaming gallery' actually undermines its own agenda, which is one might have supposed, to collectively share and exchange constructive thoughts on the subject at hand..? Eh ho!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Azizi
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 08:48 AM

To Virginia Tam and others,

I usually don't spend a great deal of time thinking about what I write on Mudcat threads during the actual act of writing. Though Mudcat has a "Preview" feature, I confess that I rarely use it. Usually I prefer to proof read my serious posts one time or a couple of times before I hit the submit button. Unfortunately, sometimes this had led to typos, grammatical errors, and even cut & paste gobblygook being left in my submitted posts. Sometimes if I catch them, I consider these errors of sufficient importance that I will post a correction. Other times, I don't post any corrections, but let my errors alone, as further testimony to my humanness.

However, the fact that I don't reflect a great deal on the serious comments that I write while I'm writing it, doesn't mean that these comments are written impulsively. On the contrary, I spend a considerable amount of time thinking about these "heavy duty" topics before I write my posts. I consider the topic of this discussion to be one of those "heavy duty"{important} topics.

I like to think of Mudcat as a community, and I like to comment on the public threads as though I'm engaged in conversations with a specific person or with specific people. While doing so, I'm aware that there are other people {lurkers} who are likely to read my comments immediately after I hit the submit button. In addition, because these public threads are archived, there are also people who may potentially read my comments and the comments in these threads that written by other people days, weeks, months, and years from now. Therefore writing on Mudcat is an opportunity, a challenge, and a responsibility.

I agree with Little Hawk's 03 Jan 09 - 11:16 PM comments that "There's also a sort of multicultural thing happening here... Each identifiable group seems to have its own particular foibles, issues, hangups, and ways of having fun. It's hard to figure out at first, and no one has provided a racing form or a program to explain it all...so you've got to sort of learn as you go along".

I know that I have been shaped by the experiences that I have had and continue to have as an African American woman growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in the New Jersey and living since the late 1960s in Western Pennsylvania. I mention my racial identity online in part because it adds context {and perhaps sometimes validity] to my comments about certain subjects such as race and African American culture/s. I also mention my race in some of my posts to this forum {and I encourage others to mention their race/nationality} as part of the demographical information that I {and I believe they should} document during the collection of cultural products such as children's playground rhymes and other folk songs. However, I do not mention my race when I am posting about topics when I consider that demographical information to be unneccesary {for example in the thread that I started on "Favorite Religious Songs" or humorous threads}. Of course, other reasonable people-including other African Americans-might disagree with me about whether mentioning race is important at all, or is necessary all of the times that I mention it.

That said, I believe that part of what Little Hawks referred to as Mudcat's multicultural mix has sometimes resulted in my misunderstanding other people's motivations, statements, and humor {humour}. And this multicultural mix has sometimes resulted in other people misunderstanding my motivations, statements, and humor.

One of the things that continues to surprise me and one of my deepest regrets about this Mudcat community is that there are so few people of color who post on this forum. Because of the cultural complexity that Little Hawk referenced, let me "break down" {define, provide clarifying information} about what I just wrote. By "people of color", I mean people who are of Black or Brown African descent, people who are Asian, people who are Latino/a, people who are Native American, people who are indigenous Australians, and other people who are non-White. And by "so few people of color on Mudcat", I mean people of those racial backgrounds/ethnicities who publicly acknowledge their racial/ethnic identity ["ethnic" is used here in the USA sense of "Latino/a"/"Hispanic"}. I know that there is at least one other African American who sometimes post on this forum because that person pmed me to share this information with me. In that private message, s/he indicated that s/he did not want to share any information about her/his racial identity in the public threads. I responded back that I regretted that decision, but to each his or her own.

I respect that confidential information just as I respect all confidential information that is shared through private messages. However, if there were more people of color who indicated their racial/ethnic identity in their public posts, and shared their perspectives on the racial topics that invariably are the focus of Mudcat threads {sometimes started by me, but often started by other Mudcatters and guests}, then-even if I didn't always agree with those posters-I think Mudcat would be a richer community.

All of this leads me, Virginia Tam, to the comment in your latest post to this thread that "[a Mudat member] who contacted me [in a private message] mentioned being stalked and felt racism was suspected". First of all, when you said that an individual pmed you and indicated that she or he felt that racism might be the reason why he or she was being stalked, my first reaction is to substitute the word "prejudice" for "racism" as I know that I didn't pm you to sat this, and as it would very much surprise me if the Mudcat member who pmed you was another person of color.

My reading of Mudcat threads leads me to believe that some people outside of the USA, or maybe also within the USA use the word "racism" when I {and perhaps most Black people} would use the word "prejudice". Or perhaps some people have a wider definition of "race" than I do, in that they may consider White ethnic groups such as Irish, Polish, and Italians as a race separate from English, and French people. If a person pre-judges another individual or groups of individuals because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, and/or sexual orientation, I would consider that to be "prejudice" and not "racism". [There are, of course, ethnicities within African American and other Diaspora African populations, but addressing that would provide too much detail to this already long winded post].

I hasten to say that I believe that prejudice is just as bad as racism. I also believe that no one should be stalked on this forum or anywhere else online or offline. But I know it happens. When it does, a person has to decide what to do herself and himself on a case by case basis. And hopefully that person will have clear support from other people who are aware by reading these public threads that stalking is occurring. And also that person will have clear intervention and support from Mudcat moderators.

I'll write more on the subject of Mudcat moderators and other related and unrelated matters in my next post to this thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 09:25 AM

I try not to superimpose my understanding of what has been told to me and I also do my best to report as faithfully and as conscientiously as I can.

I do not know what the colour is, of the person who contacted me. And it was this person who suspected "racism" (their word, not mine) was the reason s/he was being stalked thru threads. I will not give anymore information than this, as it was told to me in confidence, not to mention it may identify and or inflame individuals.

I am now very sorry to have started this thread. It appears it will go in horrible directions I never meant it to.

And this I think is the biggest travesty, sorry that the forum does not have more people of colour and that some here do not wish it to be known. What alost opportunity.

Maybe this is not the place for me.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Azizi
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 09:32 AM

VirginiaTam, in your comment of 04 Jan 09 - 04:25 AM you wrote that
"It might be useful to have a link to moderators for the newbies in the FAQ area. We don't know who they are. Maybe it is there already. My plan for today is to go through the FAQ area more thoroughly."

I'd like to make a friendly ammendment to your suggestion, but prior to doing so, my compliments to you on your wonderfully descriptive statement that "It is so easy to jump into this forum with both feet, not realising you may be landing on someone's gouty toe".

I've written on previous threads that I think Mudcat's Frequently Asked Questions section is terribly difficult to read and decipher. I won't go there again {Ah! Now there's a pun if I ever saw one. I meant that I won't repeat what I said before. But another meaning is probably also correct}

Instead of having a link to the Mudcat moderators in the FAQ {where it might get lost in the sauce}, my friendly ammendment is to reactivate the Mudcat "Help" feature, to provide a private message link to Joe Offer and a private message link to Big Mick {my understanding is that these two moderators have the same status/responsibility but I might be wrong about this}, and to provide a private message link to "All Other Moderators" {some of whom have identified themselves on public threads, and some of whom have not}. The reason why I'm suggesting three separate links is that sometimes, for personal reasons, members and guests might perfer to speak to one or another of these chief moderators or may perfer not to address their concerns to either of the chief moderators {that said, I would suppose that the other moderators would share any important concern with the chief moderators and or Max, the owner of this site}.

Putting the link in the Help section as a separate part of the private message feature means that it would be easily accessible, and also available to members and guests {though other parts of the private message system would remain unavailable to guests}. Furthermore, because these messages are private, unlike the old Help feature, no one else can read those messages, which means that there wouldn't be the flames or spam that showed up in the old Help feature. It's an idea. But if Max perfers not to re-open the Help feature or chooses not to add links to Moderators, I can live with that.

**

VirginiaTam, you wrote that ""In future, if I feel put upon, I will try to remember to check out the person's other posts, learn who they are in context to others before I react. I will offer the same advice to others who contact me with anxieties."

I think that there are times online as well as off-line when a person "feels put upon" that she or she has to act quickly and therefore can not research what makes another person tick.

Also, the quantity of posts that many Mudcatters have written would make reading all of their archived posts or even skimming through their archived posts almost impossible to do. I mean we're talking about thousands of post for just one person.

Furthermore, a public post provides just a snapshot in time of the person who wrote it. People change their moods, and also people do change {and hopefully evolve} overtime, especially when we're talking over years. That said, I've found it interesting to surf through old threads and even some particular Mudcatters archived threads to learn more about them. Another way of learning about some Mudcatters is to read their bios in the "Membership" feature. When I joined Mudcat in Sept 2004, I thought that members were supposed to write a bio. However, I've since learned that few members have written bios. I wish members would voluntarily do so, but wouldn't want it to be a requirement.

One of the reasons why bios would be helpful is because most Internet screen names don't provide demographical information such as gender and also may provide erroneous information regarding the person's geographical location. For instance, because most people on Mudcat are unfamiliar with my actual name "Azizi", I'm often mistaken for a male. And I wouldn't be surprised if people think that I'm Muslim because the Swahili name female "Azizi" is so close to the Arabic female name "Aziza" and the Arabic male name "Aziz".

As another example, Virginia Tam, because of the "Virginia" in your name, I keep forgetting that you are in the UK. This may lead to some cultural misunderstandings {though you might be an American living in the UK}, but all in all, I think we {you and me} understand each other pretty well.

Well, that's enough comments from me. Have a good day, and Best wishes to you and all others,

Azizi

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Megan L
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 09:33 AM

Race is no jist black and white fur goodness sake.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 09:42 AM

Posting on Mudcat is similar to dropping a stone in the middle of a pond. The ripples spread out and no one can tell where they will come ashore and what effect they will have when they get to land.

Most of the ripples from your thread will create good echoes, Virginia.

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 09:45 AM

"When I joined Mudcat in Sept 2004, I thought that members were supposed to write a bio. However, I've since learned that few members have written bios. I wish members would voluntarily do so, but wouldn't want it to be a requirement."

Azizi, I ditto this.
The big problem with the Cat is it's quite utterly antiquated forum software!
No personal page, which comes automatically as part of the package for most forums. People just fill 'em out, when they are just 'there'.

Quotes, links, personal bio, photy's etc. Anything you want to include or don't want to include.

I'm a thirty-something white working-class bint from the UK btw. With a very typically English 'silly' sense of humour. Humour style, is incidentally IMO a very telling culturally identifiable quality (and no-doubt racially too, but I don't pretend to know about such things in the virtually all-white South-East England.) Because it clicks into all our unspoken understandings (ot of course misunderstandings).
It's certainly been interesting observing the cameraderie between the Americans on-board. So many fascinating shared cultural references.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 09:50 AM

I think that could have been better put, MeganL, but I was about to say something similar, namely that there do appear to be prejudices against for example the English, and in some cases the Jews, and in other cases Arabs (or some of them), in yet others the Irish (or some of them) and in most cases (or many cases) these could be racist prejudices. Indeed is there more spite than fun in Diane Easby's repeated reference to " 'Murkans" (in which I am somemes tempted to join)?

Be that as it may, Azizi is one of those here for whose posts I usually feel the greatest respect (and sometimes awe, that she can put so much careful and balanced thought into one post).

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Azizi
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 09:52 AM

VirginiaTam, I have just read your latest post of 04 Jan 09 - 09:25 AM.

I absolutely didn't intend for my comments to cause you to consider leaving this forum. I very much hope that you remain an active Mudcat member.

I also hope that more people [including more people of color] will join Mudcat. I think that it would be interesting and helpful if more person of color would identify themselves by race/ethnicity. However, if they do not, or if other people of color don't join, I still strongly believe that this forum is a rich resource about various topics, including folk music, folk culture, and yes, even race relations. And I also believe that Mudcat provides wonderful opportunities for people to meet and learn about other people from their own culture and from other cultures. Hopefully, we might meet some of these people off-line. But even if we don't, meeting and exchanging information, opinions, and socializing with people on Mudcat provides opportunities for people to grow. Although, I admit that I've taken breaks from this forum now and then, for various reasons, I've always returned.

I believe that Mudcat is one of the best forums online, partly because it is so eclectic in the topics that are discussed, and also because it has an international membership. And imo, there's nothing at all wrong with discussing what could make this forum better for newbies as well as for veteran members.

Again, VirginiaTam, I hope that you aren't considering leaving this forum. Please stay and please continue posting.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Azizi
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 10:05 AM

Let me rephase this sentence:

Although, I admit that for various reasons, I've taken breaks from this forum now and then, I've always returned.

**

Megan L, yes, I'm aware that there are more races than "White and Black". However, my point still stands that the definitions for and the use of the words "racism" and "prejudice" appear to me to be different in the USA {or at least among African Americans who I know} and in the UK.

Richard, thanks for your compliment. Sleepy Rosie, thanks for your comment.

With that, I'm returning to lurker mode on this thread.

Best wishes,

Azizi

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 10:45 AM

VT, if you work on the basis that they're all bonkers (including - especially - the sane ones) and that you could probably settle most of the arguments with a best-of-three bouts of arm-wrestling, you'll go far.

I reckon the golden rules (insofar as there are any rules in encouragingly anarchic world of Mudcat) are:
i) maintain a sense of humour;
ii) quietly walk away if someone winds you up and only post a retort later (took me ages to work that one out!);
iii) try not to respond to personal attacks (especially as they may not be intended that way);
iv) try not to make personal attacks (no matter how much you may be tempted!);
v) try to believe that if someone appears to be a complete turd there's usually a reason for this;
vi) assume there's a possible incogruence between someone's writing style and what they're trying to say (for example, I really didn't like what one particular long term member seemed to be saying until I realised that behind the, um, waspish surface style lurked some excellent sense);
vii) really, really, really don't get into it with anyone who appears to display obsessive traits... unless it's a harmless one like being obsessively helpful or obsessively nice;
viii) don't feel you always have to follow your own or anyone else's advice. Ever.

I don't feel like I've been here long enough to welcome you, so instead I'll welcome you to Manchester in advance of next time you're passing by...

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 10:58 AM

Feel free to ignore everything Rapaire posts, including this.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 11:03 AM

sigh....

Thank you everybody. I will be staying. Can't help it. Addicted to the knowledge resources not to mention the pure idiotic playfulness (beard abuse being one recent example).

I have a friend (former work colleague) on Facebook. Black, female, blues singer. Think I will give her a tickle about Mudcat. See if she is interested in having a look around. She is ever so busy, so it may not happen. Heck she may be here already in cognito.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: maire-aine
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 11:09 AM

For really serious messages, I have found that it is better to compose in Word, then copy and paste into the thread. It gives me a chance to blow off steam and then edit, without the risk of accidentally hitting "submit" in the heat of the moment.

M

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 11:16 AM

For really annoying messages I find it best to take a long walk in the woods and truly think about what was said and what I want to say, and then ignore the whole thing while cogitating upon the stupidity of some people.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 11:23 AM

For really annoying messages I find it best to take a long walk in the woods and truly think about what was said and what I want to say, and then ignore the whole thing while cogitating upon the stupidity of some people

...isn't a 'taking a long walk in the woods' a euphemism for taking a dump?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 11:27 AM

compose in Word I do it in Notepad. (this could be turned into something kinky... but I won't)

Ahhh Spleen and Rap are now in da house. Roll on toilet humour.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 11:32 AM

Oh. Race.

I'm a laterally symmetrical, bipedal, bimanual, biocular and biaural member of Homo Sapiens Sapiens (a carbon-oxygen life form), resident on the third planet of the star we call "Sol."

Azizi, Amos, Amergin, and Peace have met me. So have others, only they didn't know it.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 11:44 AM

Shane has been wanting to meet you for a long time too, Rapaire. Sadly, though, it has not happened yet. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 11:51 AM

Now that is one Rapaire post NOT to ignore!**bg** Good advice.

Re: modertors...we all used to be joe clones, as I said. As Max told me, recently, it is just a matter of semantics. We are all moderators and have the same tools at hand to help folks, etc. Max gave us the option of being public or not, so I don't think you will see any direct links to any of us. All it takes is a PM to any of us who are "out" including Joe, Jeri, Mick,and myself.

As for bios and such...Pene Azul, the fellow who has been Max's partner in Mudcat forever, has a 3D life which has taken over and precluded any additions to profiles, etc. That was several years ago. Nowadays with so many folks on Myspace, Facebook, etc. it's just as simple to include a link. I, personally, like that Mudcat is not part of the pack, i.e. different and seemingly antiquated...that's part of being a folkie, isn't it?**bg**

Finally, I have to say I know other people of different races/ethnicities/colour/minorities (which can include LBGT,)etc. who are members but do not define themselves by that. While I respect anyone's right to do so and to share their experiences, I don't think anyone should feel as though they have to come out, so to speak.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: wysiwyg
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 11:55 AM

I went to Cognito once, but it was too crowded and they kept wanting to put nametags on all the new arrivals. :~)

VT, I forgot one thing that may be a useful way to see Mudcat-- a veteran (before I was a veteran) described it as trying to herd wet cats up a limp noodle for a rope. Damn folkies are jes' too danged independent-minded and 'bellious to take kindly to much in the way of structure or rules. And then there's the musicians' creativity on top of that.

And then on top of that, "who" or "what" Mudcat is on any given day depends upon who's here that particular day and how their mindset is when they cruise in, and how they affect one another as they collide. Yikes! :~)

Names are a factor too. I had you confused w=for awhile with another Tam who has had several Mudcat names all including "Tam." Now I just think of you as that newish member who figured out, quick, how to make good links. :~)

Soon you too will be confused by all sorts of Mudcat trends, identities and legacies. ;~)

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 12:00 PM

...described it as trying to herd wet cats up a limp noodle for a rope.

Like THIS, Susan!:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 12:05 PM

I quite like the simplicity of the Mudcat setup. Except when the bluddy search function does not work - it's been out all day today, in fact it quite often malfunctions for me. Who should I contact about that?

Don't feel any need to have a MySpace or Facebook kind of set up here. There are threads where you can share your other space bio links and we can always do it in PMs.

Re the moderators... if we are new we still don't know who you are. There is nothing on the front page or in the links to indicate who the Mods are, who to contact if one needs advice or help. We just have to sort of discover this as we go along.

Someday i gonna be a big cat... then all you betta look out. I not hiss, i not swipe, i not growl, i just sit and look at you wif narrowed eyes that say.... YOU BETTA BE GOOD.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 12:07 PM

LOL!!! That is quite a video.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 12:12 PM

fantastic... video had me laughing so hard I started hacking cough again....


kkkkrruugggsplutttt Sorry hair ball. Somebody clean that up.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 12:12 PM

Oh, not too much good please. What did Sheridan say in "School for Scandal" - "The malice in a good thing is the barb that makes it stick" wasn't it?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 12:23 PM

Bluddy Noel convoluted Coward quotes.

WSYSWIG - re link making... I used to edit US FEDERAL CODE online in DOS. I had to write code to make the code show. Learned HTML before I took that job. HTML was a walk in the park compared to MAPS commands.

Now I have forgotten more than I ever knew. Think I am starting to fit in.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 12:24 PM

Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

:0)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 12:37 PM

As Bob Dylan once sang... "I've forgotten more than you'll ever know...about her-r-r-r"

(you reminded me of that song on the album Self Portrait)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 12:50 PM

That's a good point about newbies not knowing where to go for help, VTam. I hope the Help page will be back up, soon. In the meantime, you can always use the Quick Links drop down menu and choose Contact Us to send an email to Max, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 12:53 PM

No, not Coward, Sheridan. And I nearly got it right

here

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 01:49 PM

Well it seemed Cowardesque then... you have to think about it too hard to figure it out and then you still aren't sure.

Why don't I remember studying Sheridan?

British Drama. Let's see, my US bachelor education provided wisp of mystery and miracle plays, touch of Shakespeare and other Tudor plays and weency bit of Oscar (oh my god I love him) Wilde mingled in two semesters general study English Literature. Full semester of Tudor Stuart Drama, full semester of Shakespeare (part of which was sonnet study). The rest of my Brit Lit education was taken up mostly with metaphysical and romantic poets.

I suppose if I had gone after the much coveted master's degree, I probably would have been introduced to Sheridan.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 02:07 PM

"The cat went out in the dark one night
With that look in his eye as if to fight
Another cat so big and strong
But, he knew that all along
He would never win the fight
So around he turned, so scared and tense
And walking silently, home he went."


This is kinda what the Mudkittens do, until they grow big enough to miaow "FOOOOOOOOOK OFFFFFFFFFFF!" to the larger, bossy felines, who then back right off, retreating into a corner and cat-cursing under their breath...

;0)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 02:42 PM

Dylan recorded that song, Little Hawk, but as you probably know, it is not his nor was his recording of it the biggest hit. A man named Null wrote it and the Davis Sisters (or maybe it was recorded AFTER Skeeter's sister died) had a huge hit.

I remember it well- I used to sing it a lot in the early '60s, and still remember the harmonies. Awesome. A Louvin Brothers type, the type that sends shivers down your spine.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 03:06 PM

Yeah, it's a pretty neat tune, isn't it? Most of the songs Dylan did on that album were covers of other people's works. I've heard more recently that he deliberately recorded a lot of that stuff on "Self Portrait" to alienate his more fanatical fans and make them give up on him in disgust and leave him alone for a change. ;-) I don't know if that's true or not, but I still like the album anyway, even if it is.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 03:43 PM

Kat-

I joined this thread late and have been trying to catch up. Then I clicked on your cat herding link... What a catastrophic video!

VirginiaTam-

I've nothing to add to the current discussion but welcome.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 03:44 PM

Well that'll be why no Sheridan then.

The School for Scandal is a comedy of manners first performed in London at Drury Lane Theatre on May 18, 1777 .

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 03:50 PM

If it is a comedy of manners, I should love it then. Someday, I will read it.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Gurney
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 03:56 PM

A point here, Tam. Men and women talk face-to-face differently. women are much more conciliatory with each other than men are, and men take the micky out of their friends much more than women do.

Although this place usually feels like a meeting, it isn't really, because most of us will never actually meet each other. Often, it takes years (because as Azizi says, we write no bio's) to realise which gender the others are, particularly if they post seldom, and their handle is not gender-specific. Or is a little misleading internationally, like yours, Tam being the common Scots for Thomas.
So, if someone treats you more robustly than you expect, it may be just that he (usually he) can't see you. I have noticed that the known and openly female members get more politeness than the known males do!

The first lesson I learned was, proofread! Everyone will pick you up if you make a funny mistake, English being our medium of contact. It really isn't personal, we pick everyone up! See WYSIWYG's post up there for an example. Some people post in patois as a defence.
So, welcome to Mudcat from me too. You sound like our kind of person. That is, you have opinions and you are prepared to air them, and to speak up for yourself.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 04:08 PM

Face to face talk is way different. You can hear the other person's tone of voice and you can see their facial expressions and body language. The fact that you can't do that here means that things people say are easily misinterpreted or taken out of context, and offence may be taken where none is intended...or a bit of harmless banter may be taken entirely seriously, leading to further misunderstandings.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 04:20 PM

We could try taking people as we find them, that might help.
If you expect to walk into a crowded room and get on with every other person there, you are living in cloud cuckoo land.
If you don't like what they say to you, either ignore them, or ask them for an explanation, or even an apology. You may find that you took what they said wrongly. It's been done before on here, and in other places too.
To some of the other points made by other posters on here, I would say this. Remember that UK and US have different cultures, and a very different sense of humour too, and that over here, we are also black/white/brown/yellow/pink/fawn etc etc. Also as far as that is concerned, we also have a very different history.
I know we have a lot in common, but please try to respect the differences too, we march to different tunes you know.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 04:22 PM

I have played forum before. A several different poetry and story writing forums yonks ago when the interwub was just a little Fluvanna Cabbage (aka brussel sprout).

I remember the flaming and the trolling and some bastard closing poems as soon as they were opened. Well aware of the problems and opportunities that anonymity presents in the virtual meeting space.

But all this information is good for current and newbies of the future.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: gnu
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 04:22 PM

I resemble that remark, LH.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 04:39 PM

Great, great. I just hope you don't resemble Woody Allen. Well, not in the respect of his whiny monologues, I mean... ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 04:43 PM

"I have noticed that the known and openly female members get more politeness than the known males do!"


Crikey, maybe I'm a Boy Cat! Maybe that explains it all... ( lol )

Oh WHERE is a Giggling Smiley when you need one! :0))))))))))

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 06:14 PM

On another site maybe!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 06:22 PM

Now now, down boy, purrrrrrrrrrrrrr..... :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Megan L
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 06:24 PM

I would move your fingers out of the way quick

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Gurney
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 07:01 PM

Ok, Lizzie, OK. >:-]

Perhaps I should have said I tend to treat females less robustly than I do males, as do most male posters.
There isn't a lot of flaming, compared with some sites, and trolling is spotted quickly, and so far as I'm aware, only Joe and the clones can close anything. We do get some people (one person?) who thinks racial proclivities are a funny subject, and others who think that it is VERY unfunny, but most are of mature years (very, very, mature years, some of us) and slow to anger. But firmly of an opinion.

Oh yes.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 08:04 PM

Oh Kat - I don't know which is funnier - the video or the fact that it was made for EDS!

EDS used to run the computer systems for HM Revenue and Customs in the UK, along with a whole heap of other government contracts. They were known universally as 'Everything Done Slowly', as it would often take a week to get a response to a call out for a tech problem.

In our experience, EDS couldn't round up a bag of zeros... let alone herd cats!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 08:52 PM

Okay......Just go play out back for a minute huh?

HEY.....DO IT!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 08:53 PM

WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Just get the hell off this thread for a minute......okay?

...............geeziz................

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 08:53 PM

100

Okay......go on with your discussion............

Spaw(;<))

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 09:11 PM

No.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 09:23 PM

LH-

Too late! The cat's out of its bag.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 09:26 PM

I'm just being obstinate. ;-) Like a cat.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 09:28 PM

Yeah......I suppose the choice is yours but I figure its more because you're a miserable limpdick jadrool with nothing to say. See Hawk, I didn't want to foul up these nice folks talking about whatever ta' hell they're talking about but you on the other hand act as if you know what they have to say and then go about rephrasing it in long, boring, prose.

And another thing while I got you're sorry ass here............Let's not go telling folks I'm a nice guy and trashin' my rep. If I was a nice guy would I call you a limpdick jadrool or a broke-dick mamalucca? An HONEST guy would call you that but a nice guy might just keep it at "flake."


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 09:32 PM

Poor, poor Spaw -- nobody bidding on him in the auction and all he has left of his life is to sit in his rocking chair, gumming his pablum and collecting century marks on Mudcat threads.

Oh, Vtam -- I had a bachelor's education in English, lit -- come to think of it I still do. I had TWO semesters of Shakespeare (one from the drama perspective); classic, medieval, Shakespeare-contemporary, 18th Century, modern and contemporary (at the time) drama; and all sorts of other things that were intended to Make Me A Well-Read Gentleman Of Leisure And/Or A PHD In English Literature.

It didn't take. I ended up with said BA, and minors in Drama, Philosophy, and (of all things) Theology.

Then I went off and got a Master's Degree -- in SCIENCE!! (Well, Library and Information Science, but still....)

None of this means I can fence well with a case of rapiers, although I could hold my own with cloak and rapier or rapier and dagger.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 09:51 PM

Gawd Rap......It really is depressing sometimes. At least you got those other degrees.......My phlosophy degree used to get me a cup of coffee at McDonalds for only a buck and a half but since this last downturn it now costs me 2 bucks!!! You'd think a degree would be worth more than that............especially in something as necessary as philosophy.

I've given up though..............My bi-annual passion attack for Eastern thought has really got me going this time and I have taken to eating mass quantities of Phad Thai and General Tso's Chicken and gleening bits of wisdom from the fortune cookies. But even this has left me depressed as last night I got one that said, "We are all what we do the most so excellence will always breed excellence."

I thought about this and the thing I do the most anymore is take a crap which means I guess that I'm shit. I figure I either need to read instead from the Bhagavad Gita or buy a different brand of Fortune Cookie.................

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 10:05 PM

ANd there you have it, new arrivals one and all--the Mudcat's most vainglorious, downtrodden, preternatural, trash-talking, inhibition-shatterin', poly-flatulent, extremes of mouth-music and brain-melt rolled up for your delectation in a few short posts from Rapaire, Spaw, Little Hawk and Miss Alia. (Inter Alia, if you must know. And no, you can't have her phone number.)   

Now, I ask you: if these battle-scarred veterans can roll and tumble in plain side of Gawd and everr'body just as crude and flap-hanging as you please without giving as much as a Mudkitten's piffle-fart as to whether anyone had a considered opinion about their merits, character, upbringing, verisimilitude or rectitude either--is there any goddamned reason under the sun why you should have the slightest scruple, the merest frisson of misgiving, the smallest shadow of self-doubt about saying what you want, writing what you think, and letting the Devil take the hiindmost?

I rather thought not. A more object lesson in Mudcat Chivalry could not be presented. You have seen Masters at work upon the Mudcat Earth--go ye forth, and do likewise.



A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Gurney
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 11:12 PM

Couldn't put it better myself, Amos!


Spell it better, yes, but not put it better.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Gurney
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 11:15 PM

By the way, Tam, A mudcat is a fish, so we are told. A baby fish is not a kitten, but a fingerling.



Don't take that the wrong way.....

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 11:24 PM

You make a good point there, Amos. ;-) Newcomers should bear in mind that Spaw is presently in his third childhood and is experiencing a state of shock and denial due to him being turned down for a room at the NYCFTTS!!!! (Neil Young Center for the Terminally Screwed) This has NEVER happened before in history! It's downright astounding, and it may be bigger news than the election of Barack Obama. My only thought on the matter is that Neil Young himself must have become aware of some of the injudicious remarks that Spaw has uttered in the past to the effect that he can't tell whether Neil is playing his electric guitar onstage or screwing it.

Yeah...it's gotta be that. It couldn't just be that Spaw is a witless, know-nothing, rude jadrool of the lowest sort who wanders around the neighborhood dressed in an enormous wizard hat and thinks it will get him favors from naive pre-20s females. Naw...couldn't be that. They've taken worse than that at the NYCFTTS in the past, after all.

Yeah, I'm bettin' Neil Young has put you on his personal blacklist, ol' pal. Too bad. Well, maybe I can still provide a fold-up cot at the WSSBA* if all else fails.

*(William Shatner School of Baaaaad Acting - located in scenic Orillia, Ontario, Canada, just down the road from the Bigmouth Billy Bass Lake turnoff).

Those metal cots squeak like hell, and they're not much good if you're under 5'6", but they do hold up great most of the time, if you don't toss and turn too much in the night, and you won't, cos the squeaking will drive you right out of your mind.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Gurney
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 11:48 PM

Don't hold back, there, LH. Tell it as you see it!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: catspaw49
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 01:08 AM

Hey Man.....I BUILT the damn NYCFFTS and that was simply a scheduling problem with the Insanevac Chopper to get me there rather than a problem in getting my regular room. The Center has been extremely busy lately what with all the out of work Bush folks realizing they are now screwed.

Additionally, the new wing, the James Taylor Catatonic Blandness Rehab Clinic, is doing very well itself although we could have taken in more bucks if you hadn't spent so much time there yourself in the Lonesome George Boredom Treatment baths.

The orphan girl dropped the charges after she was overcome by my supreme wizardry and the power of Da' Hat and now realizes I am indeed ........GOD!
BTW, she knows Winona Ryder and was all set to put in a good word for you until you sent that nude picture of yourself and Shatner picking fleas off Chongo. Shatner's genitals were covered by his massive belly but yours were in view and very disappointing. She said you looked like a half-eaten cocktail weenie flanked by two raisins. Are there botox treatments you could take for your nuts & willie? Or plastic surgery?

Probably doesn't matter though since they get so rarely used..................

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 01:20 AM

Ohmygosh, I haven't had to clean up so much cat litter in ages! Spaw, out back and bring the rake with you!**bg**

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: GUEST,jts
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 01:50 AM

Higgledy Piggledy
    Another fresh kitty cat
    Joining in the MudCat
    To talk about songs.

    Acclimatization
    to nonsensical-foolery
    assimilation
    Achieved before long.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 04:07 AM

Some sage advice for newbys here.
But by far the most valuable thing I learned from this thread (thanks to Amos below), and something which I will be able to take with me when a newby on other fora, was the term "Poly-Flatulent." Indispensable.
Now why isn't that anywhere to be found in FAQ?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 04:21 AM

PolyFlatus... wasn't he a senator in 'Gladiator' with Russell Crowe?























Roll up, roll up, git yer strait jackets here, one size restrains all!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 04:28 AM

Small Fry Gurney ;)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Mr Red
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 08:23 AM

VirginiaTam -

Welcome - lurk a-while till the nice people reveal themselves and don't feed the trolls (or the nasty people). Ignore them.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 11:18 AM

This sent to me today, by a former colleague. How timely.

RULES OF ETIQUETTE FOR INEXPERIENCED CATS
1: If you have to throw up, get into a chair quickly. If you cannot manage this in time, get to an Oriental rug.
or in the slipper or lap of a veteran Catter

2: Determine quickly which guest hates cats. Sit on that lap during the evening. He won't dare push you off and will even call you "nice kitty." If you can arrange to have cat food on your breath, so much the better.
see also thread about sprouts for gorillas

3: For sitting on laps or rubbing against trouser legs, select colours which contrast with your own.
try to ensure you have good static charge built up first

4: Always accompany guests to the bathroom. It is not necessary to do anything. Just sit and stare.
or check all threads that Spaw, Rapaire, and others have "deposited" toilet humour - ask questions

5: For guests who say, "I love kitties," be ready with aloof disdain, claws applied to stockings or a quick nip on the ankles.
check other threads for sickeningly sweet comments and repeat them back to author - ask questions

6: Do not allow closed doors in any room. To get one open, stand on hind legs and hammer with forepaws. Once the door is opened for you, it is not necessary to use it. You can change your mind. When you have ordered an outside door opened, stand half in and half out and think about several things. This is particularly important during very cold weather or mosquito season.
especially important in threads dedicated to moaning about weather

7: If one person is busy and the other is idle, sit with the busy one. For book readers, get in close under the chin, unless you can lie across the book itself.
useful trick in derailing heated arguments in threads - purr and be cute

8: For ladies knitting, curl quietly into lap and pretend to doze. Then reach out and slap knitting needles sharply. This is what she calls a dropped stitch. She will try to distract you. Ignore it.
don't forget to visit the Mudcrafter's thread- unravel some stuff

9: For people doing work, sit on the paper being worked on. After being removed for the second time, push anything movable off the table-pens, pencils, stamps-one at a time.
hah.... nobody on Mudcat actually works - you will have to find something else to do on this point or maybe you could annoy moderators

10: Get enough sleep during the daytime so that you are fresh for playing at night between 2 and 4 a.m.
this is especially good if have a partner but are not a two MudCat household.... drive your partner crazy....tapping at keyboard all night

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 12:20 PM

Ha! Very good. ;-) Now combine that with the last couple exchanges between me and Spaw (Catspaw49), and you have fairly well got the sillier side of Mudcat nicely wrapped up and ready to place under the tree.

Darned right nobody works here! At least...not openly. It's not allowed! Ask Spaw about that and he will confirm it by telling you all about Lane, Fielding, Patterson, and Swan, the most famous quartet of layabouts in history.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 01:54 PM

Well, I don't know about "toilet humor." I can do blasphemy pretty well (having had a good Catholic education) as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 02:05 PM

Ain't the American and Canadian cats just purrrrrrfect! :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 02:27 PM

Nar, they useter be, but they got conceited.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: PoppaGator
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 03:51 PM

Perhaps I'm abnormally thick-skinned, but I've never gotten my feelings hurt by anyone's Mudcat post.

Because of this personality trait of mine, I'm sometimes afraid that I might be offending someone else, without meaning to. I'll type things that wouldn't bother me, without stopping to think that they might offend some other, more sensitive, soul.

Expressing an opinion contrary to another person's need not be read as personal; you should try to interpret it as being directed towards the issue at hand, not at the person who brought the issue up. If you can cultivate this attitude ~ even in cases where the contrary argument might include a few unfortunately personal phrases ~ you'll be OK.

After all, it's not "Real Life," is it? Just a bunch of ones and zeroes...

And, oh yeah, a "Mudcat" is indeed a fish, not a feline ~ a kind of oversized river-dwelling catfish. Too ugly and nasty-tasting to bother hunting down and killing.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 04:34 PM

Mudcat
The one not wearing blue

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 04:51 PM

As a kid and teen, I spent my summers, boating, swimming and yes fishing on the Chickahominy River... I know what a Mudcat is... it is a fish with whiskers that can sting ya nastily if you ain't careful.

Didn't know that capitalising on the "cat" part for my metaphored title and opening post was gonna cause such a ruckus. Must be a guy thing.

Maybe I should have said Smallfry in the Aquarium.

Nah! Just doesn't work.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 05:07 PM

Man, that is one UGLY frikkin' fish!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 05:09 PM

Mudcat...yum! Good eating if it's fixed right:

1. Cleaned, skinned, and the fillets rolled in cornmeal and deep fried.

2. The fillets soaked in beer for 8 hours and the oil periodically skimmed off -- then treat it as any mild whitefish.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 05:26 PM

Catfish from the Chickahominy taste like the silt in the Chickahominy, no matter what you do to it. Disgusting. I like perch and large mouth bass.

We used to go herring dipping when they were so thick you could walk on em. I don't know why. We didn't eat them.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 05:34 PM

I think I'd prefer to soak myself in beer for 8 hours and dispose of the fish - I have cats to feed!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 10:13 PM

Pah! You people just don't know good food. Ever had carp fillets? Or fatback? Or hog and hominy? Or squirrel gravy on bread soaked in bacon grease?

Even had your LDL checked...?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Janie
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 10:16 PM

Amos, LH, Rap and 'Spaw may indeed be vainglorious.

I fear the day they all start comparing hemorrhoids to determine who is the most veingoreous.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Jeri
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 10:20 PM

eeeeew!
ick!
I have to flippin' SLEEP tonight, Janie!
bleeeecchhhh!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 10:37 PM

Did you misspeak, Janie? Did you mean most "veingorgeous" as in 'gorged'?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 10:45 PM

Yuck!!! "What do you take me for, madam???" (he thundered in outraged tones...) (another great scene from the English gentlemen's drawing room stories)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 11:20 PM

She'd take you for a whatever you have and more, LH. Mudcat women are a tough lot.

Wouldn't it have been interesting if Shame McBride had met some of them before his recent demise? He might have demised sooner if he had.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Gurney
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 11:29 PM

Shame? Or Shane? He's dead? Did I miss it? Prison riot?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 12:05 AM

Nothing all that dramatic. It was done by Decree, like a Borneo divorce, by incanting the fact three times.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Gurney
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 01:43 AM

Shane divorced from Mudcat! Officer Dana will be pissed off, she'll get SO much more attention.

Are they Muslim, in Borneo? I thought only Muslims could sever the knot so easily.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 05:15 AM

In the autumn, it is the done thing to boast about the size of one's bunches of grapes

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 05:40 AM

Walk softly and carry a big cushion.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: PoppaGator
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 01:38 PM

Rapaire: you reminded me of a nearly-unforgettable quote from a former neighbor of ours:

"What?!? You ain't never have fried squirrel and white beans?"

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 02:00 PM

Wal, ya gotta ask Rapaire, or peruse the Mother of All BS thread back a few weeks. It was him that decanted Shane and made him to be dead by so doing. Said he was dead, done with, late lamented, the whole nine yards, he did. Said it twice and then thrice. So mought it be. Officer Dana, well, she's getting on in years and is beginning to wonder if she might not be a Lesbian after all.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 02:59 PM

I've been wondering that about Officer Jennifer Dana too, Amos! Clever of you to pick up on those little nuances and possibilities. The jury is still out on that question. (Maybe she's bisexual?)

Shane is not dead. Rapaire is in error. I repeat: Shane is not dead. I say again: Shane is not dead. He just smells that way.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 03:05 PM

Well, that explains why they don't have polyamory in Muslim countries, right there. I mean, just imagine:

Mustapha: By ALlah, I divorce thee!!
ALphapha: No, you don't!! I have a say in this!!
Mohammed: I disagree with both of you!!
Mustapha: Shut up, you two!! I divorce thee!!
Alphahapha: "No, no, no, no!!! LALALALALALALA!!!"
Mohammed: Say, where is that gal of ours, anyway???
Mustapha: She went to the souk this morning.
Mohammed: Then why is there a receipt in the trash for a one-way air ticket to Akron, Ohio?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 03:06 PM

Rapaire is NEVER in error, nor does he ever make a mistake. The late Shame McBride is no longer with us; he, she, or it has gone to that Great Tim Horton's In The Sky (or elsewhere, in this case).

Sometimes someone will post who claims to be Shame McBride, but that person is making a mockery of Someone Who Has Passed.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 03:11 PM

Some how this tread no longer appears to be on topic. I think my ball o yarn has been hijacked by some big kitties.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 03:12 PM

Aw, Tam, we aporogize.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Gurney
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 03:36 PM

Tam, divergence is the way some of us think, even Japanese people like Amos (aporogise indeed!) and the most successful (i.e. longlasting) threads have to go that way.

Clever people call it 'lateral thinking,' and sometimes it gets so lateral there's no way back to the Y vector.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 03:40 PM

Rule 1
Amos is never wrong, and cannot be guilty of thread drift.

Rule 2

In the event of a dispute, refer to rule 1

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 04:17 PM

Rule 3:

If Amos appears wrong, consult Jock.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Megan L
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 04:23 PM

Aye and rule 4. half the lies that pair tell are fibs the other half are jist plain false

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 04:48 PM

Lame excuse of "lateral thinking" sounds like a bunch of litterbox thinking.

What the hell, carrying on playing....

     /\     /\
    {  `---'  }
    {  O   O  }
    ~~>  V  <~~
     \  \|/  /
      `-----'__
      /     \  `^\_
     {       }\ |\_\_   W
     |  \_/  |/ /  \_\_( )
      \__/  /(_E     \__/
        (  /
         MM

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 05:11 PM

Rapaire, you have taken the state of mind normally termed "delusions of grandeur" and you have advanced it into a whole new amplitude of megalomania probably not seen since Nero plagued the City of Rome. Thankfully, however, you are, unlike Nero, relatively powerless. That is what permits me to still sleep with reasonable calm each night.

Shane cares nothing for your mad assertions about his supposed demise. If he wear a dog, he would lift his leg and demonstrate in a fully contemptuous fashion exactly what he thinks about those unfounded assertions.

You have lost it, good sir. You are rambling out of control down a highway of illusion. The streetcar of your mind has left the rails and is veering drunkenly off the road. The parrot of your sense of proportion is dead and has fallen off the perch. You have become unhinged. You have one foot in the loony bin and the other flailing around in empty air. You know not what you say. Your place in the coherent Universe has become officially vacant and will shortly be re-assigned to an unemployed clairvoyant rickshaw driver from Calcutta. Let's hope he makes better use of it than you did.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 05:47 PM

If he wear a dog....

What sort of dog would he wear? A boozehound?

Moreover, you have posted the bulk of your bulk twice: here and in MOAB. Have you no originality?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 06:04 PM

Um...Li'l Hawk:

That's pretty het up and vociferous defense for an imaginary character, even if he is your very own.

Next time you are passing by a perspective stand, be sure and grab some. You'll LOVE it!!!



A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 06:07 PM

Anyone not using their real name is imaginary

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 06:11 PM

Uh-huh. And what is your real name, pray tell?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Gurney
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 06:30 PM

Hey Megan, "Half the lies that pair tell are fibs...."

If it's a lie of a lie, is it the truth?

Don't bother. Women generally confuse me, anyway. Along with most of life.

Amos does too, but he aporogizes.

Amos, are you further implying that Shane is LH's nom de plume?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 09:16 PM

No, LH is Shame's alter ego (such as it is). Shame McBride was real before he croaked; Little Hawk was unreal but it now the only thing left of Shame. If this confuses you, reading MOAB from end to end will straighten you out.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: robomatic
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 11:32 PM

i swear to christ after imbibing this thread i know whut it is like to be on a spaceship wi' nought but tellyphone sanitizers!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: robomatic
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 11:35 PM

R I P douglas adams!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Gurney
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 11:42 PM

LH is unreal? Or is he 'Unreal, Man!!'

I've always judged LH too sensible, not to mention too conservative, to ever have any kind of close contact with Shane. Obviously, another misjudgement on my part.

MOAB? I did a search, and the only hit was Monoclonal Antibodies, and I never read anything that I can't pronounce.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Janie
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 12:13 AM

Ebbie,

Just to make sure Jeri has disturbing images for another night, whether it is veingoreous or veingorgeous depends on if, and how bad, they are bleeding.

(Okay, okay...I'll get me coat.........)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 02:27 AM

There has been some discussion about a battle of Colonoscopies if we can't get funding for a new Crepitation Contest.........

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 02:56 AM

MY THREAD MY THREAD! No spats. Back to your corners gentleman or I put you in the alley.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 07:10 AM

Tut tut Vermont, cool it.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: GUEST,Mr Red
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 08:12 AM

My name is real enough - it identifies me, more than my name could and there is no hiding with a name like mine..

So. Am I posting this or am I imagining it?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 09:06 AM

Since I created everyone here (and elsewhere) you are imagining it because my imagination imagines you imagining it. Imagine that!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: GUEST,LTS pretending to work
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 09:37 AM

I'm very very confused....

Are you all figments of my imagination (or in the case of Mr Red, a pigment of my imagination) or am I a figment of yours or are we all just fignewtons of the imagination of the Great Green Arklseizure and should be awaiting the coming of the Great White Handkerchief?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: GUEST,Nurse E. Nuff
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 11:39 AM

Okay, everybody, medication time now!

Virginia, dear, now be a good girl and take your Restoril. If you cooperate, maybe I'll consider untying those long sleeves a bit once your face stops being plum coloured.

Rappie, my boy, seeing as your ego is already as inflated as can be, here's a little blue pill for you.

Liz, I told you not to overdo it at work. Take your Prozac, my dear. Come on now, we'll take a nice, restful stroll in the garden to feed your tits, how about that?

As for the rest of you: Look sharp, OR ELSE....

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 12:50 PM

We solipsists are never understood....

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 01:11 PM

Understanding a solipsist is categorically impossible. Whatever you come up with he'll tell you he did it. It's a metaphysical journey into the depths of Insanity, where the whirlwind blender of apparency empties into the corroded drain of Truth, and one can only spin endlessly in contemplation.

Best not to go there.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 01:34 PM

I think that what VTam is trying to do nicely, is ask you gents to please be considerate and not utterly derail her thread. To persist, after having been politely requested not to do so, is I'm afraid to say, somewhat rude.

This isn't my thread, and frankly I didn't contribute anything other than complete bullshit here myself! But if the OP requested that I stay on topic, I would respect that request.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Megan L
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 01:37 PM

No one owns threads unless you count Max the rest of are merely guests.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 01:45 PM

There isn't an 'ownership' issue, just a courtesy one. And that's where I'll leave it. I had a PM myself from another poster (on an unrelated matter), who was rather dissapointed to see this thread descend into banter. That's possibly another reason I was inclined to post what I did myself. Apart from the courtesy issue, I love all the bullshit banter that goes on here.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 02:01 PM

oh dear...

I don't feel I own the thread, and not too fussed if it gets dragged off topic. I just don't like the fighting. Maybe I misinterpretted the banter as heated sniping.

Thank you Rosie for sticking up for me though. Very kind.

I was half considered coming in as Guest:Physiotherapist Ivana Hurtu

Start throwing threatening looks around, in a Frau Blucher fashion. Especially since guest Nurse E. Nuff was threating to tranquilise me. Geesh! I am the calm one.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 02:10 PM

We aren't fighting! We're goofing around in our usual ridiculous manner, just in order to demonstrate how that works so that you will be aware of it when you happen to run into it in future...and also, of course, because we're silly people with little or no self control and even less judgement and much time on our hands... ;-)

Gurney, your original view of me was quite correct. In real life I would generally make some effort to avoid people like Shane, though I will sort of observe them from a safe distance...it supplies me with ideas for future stories.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: gnu
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 02:10 PM

Spaw... "...battle of Colonoscopies...". For control of The Alimentary Canal?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 02:15 PM

Interestingly, from the posts here and elsewhere today, I think this must be about the time that Sleepy Rosie graduates from kitten to cat.

As for Rapaire, the reason no-one understands a solipsist is because there is no-one else so to understand.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 02:25 PM

Pay no attention to Rapaire. He's auditioning for the part of "God" in the next parallel Universe over from this one, and he can be expected to carry on in the same manner until he either gets the part or they turn him down.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 03:12 PM

Actually this is a vivid demonstration of part of the Code: "thy thread shall wander; be not afeared or distraught thereby." There is a lot of energy and enthusiasm in 'Catters as a rule, and trying to rule them straight is a bit like herding wet cats.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 03:14 PM

LH, just for that I'm not going to think of you for a couple of hours.

So there.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 04:01 PM

Rapaire:

I'm sorry--WHO did you say you were going to not think of????


A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 05:00 PM

I dunno...I'm not thinking of whoever it was.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 06:41 PM

Odd. I seem to have lost a couple of hours today...

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: michaelr
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 07:01 PM

AHEM -- back to the topic.

Virginia, you just posted a lyric (Merlin's Song) apparently without first doing a search to see whether it was already here (which it is, as Malcolm Douglas pointed out).

That's one of those things to be avoided. MD gets quite annoyed at redundancy.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 07:05 PM

I have gone on a whisky diet, and last week I lost 2 days.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Azizi
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 09:58 PM

I've just posted a comment on this thread RE: BS: Native Behaviors in Mudcat Society. That comment refers, in part, to this thread.

I'm interested in any responses on that thread about that comment.

Thanks,

Azizi

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 01:54 AM

Michael - re posting duplicate lyrics (Merlin's Song)I am in current PM conversation with Joe Offer about this. For some reason searching the current forum and the Old Adv Forum Search (as Joe advised) in quick links is not yeilding any results for me.

I searched, Merlin and Merlin's Song and came up with only about 3 threads none of which had the lyrics I posted. After I posted mine, suddenly search reveals more. Same thing happened with Gay Green Gown.

Joe said is ok for me to post, he can always fix later. if someone can tell me why my Dell from Hell laptop or maybe it is BT Broadband is choking my searches, I would appreciate it.

Azizi - thanks for the cross reference and good thoughts. Don;t know what to say on this. Need to have a think and come back to it when I have more time. Time to get ready for real job.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Gurney
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 02:08 AM

I'll point out that on other forums there seem to be rankings, depending on what I am not sure, but I presume either time or number of postings.
I've never noticed that here, and if there are, no-one ever pointed it out to me. I've been here a couple of years.

Another specific-interest forum that I'm on rates me as a cadet, despite 40 years of experience in the field.
Oddly enough, they don't seem to have ODs or sqaddies, just ossifers.

So, Tam, several people on this site have, to my personal knowledge, more than 30 years of professional experience in the genre, and are treated pretty much the same as any newby. No rankings, you aren't a kitten in a cattery, but you are on a site well populated with mature, clever, experienced, talented, and often light-hearted adults. Don't take it too seriously.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 02:42 AM

Is this where I can get my Mudcat Personna analyzed, or am I in the wrong thread?
Seriously, Virginia Plain or whatever you said your name was, don't get upset at the constant onslaught of invective and abuse that is our standard method of expressing affection at Mudcat. Many of us are actually prisoners in various institutions scattered throughout the country, and we while away the hours by reinventing ourselves as Trad Music afficianados on this site. Hell, I couldn't tell you the difference between Merle Travis and Travis Bickle.
Just as in our various prisons, certain "code phrases" are often used on this forum. To outsiders, rookies, and the innocent, when I tell Catspaw to "bite me in the ass, numbnuts", it may seem as though I disapprove of him. This is in fact NOT the case. What I'm actually communicating to him is "you are a great guy and I highly approve of you." Catspaw, in a maximum security prison in Southern Ohio, knows exactly what I mean, and may reply "go spit on your pecker and shove it in a light socket", which translates to "I hear you and reaffirm our friendship". Such exchanges are often confused with actual verbal abuse, which does in fact happen from time to time. Just a month ago, I told Amos, in his cell at San Quentin, to "take your attitude, fold it in the shape of a cowboy hat, and shove it up your ass". While I meant it literally, he took it as the password to launch his long-planned for tunnel escape, was apprehended in the act, and received another 7 years of hard time. So mistakes do happen.
The best advice I can give you, Virginia Slim, is keep your mouth shut, pay attention, and never indulge in ANY exchanges with Bobert, who is actually a serial molester being held in solitary in Wheeling State Prison.
Virginia, I'd like to conclude with good luck, welcome, and bite my ass, numbnuts. I think you'll like it here.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 03:26 AM

You know, all threads drift. It's the same if you put a group of people in one room for a natter. Relaxed conversation tends to go all over the place.

It's back to memories of the way John Tams talks and tells stories, how he goes off at tangents all the time.

Some people adore driving down the motorway, straight roads, no turn offs, nothing to distract from getting to the destination as fast as possible.

John loves to take the country lanes. He takes you to look at the flowers, drops into the villages, he gets out and talks to the post mistress, has a drink in the pub and make the journey relaxed and enjoyable, with laughter and warmth along the way.   

John rambles and it's a bit magical the way he does it, but somehow, nothing gets lost, only added to.

There have been many very funny and witty exchanges in this thread, from Tam as much as other people, and I love to read threads that are filled with wit and good humour.

Yes, if you're trying to discuss something serious then it can be irritating I guess, but I think Tam started this thread with more than a little light-hearted humour, alongside the genuine questions.

You can't have a whole pile of cats and kittens together without some very funny things happening. Some will scrap all the time, but most will play, chase each other round, behave in the zaniest of ways, run up the curtains, over the chairs, skidaddle into the garden, dash through the litter tray, then end up purring on your lap, looking at you with huge eyes, filled with love.....and you can't help but smile.

I much prefer the BS threads because they're filled with chuckles, from amazingly clever minds which spark brightly off one another, as old friends always do.   I'm totally addicted to the Below Stairs Cats and they've added to my wrinkles no end, luckily making them all go upwards with smiles. :0)

Just a few of the naughty cats (Joe's in blue) :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 06:06 AM

EJ, it was mentioned in passing the other day, that it is a bad thing to do on Mudcat. To insult your friends and call it a joke.
Can you clarify the confusion this has caused?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: GUEST,LTS pretending to work
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 08:15 AM

Actually, you should be glad the way the thread has diverted the way it has.. it could so easily have descended into the sniping, back stabbing, perpertual carping and ramming of opinions down the throat that so many other innocent threads have become.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 09:10 AM

Har! Har! Great post, L.E.J.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 11:34 AM

EJ, it was mentioned in passing the other day, that it is a bad thing to do on Mudcat. To insult your friends and call it a joke.
Can you clarify the confusion this has caused?
Well actually Giok, if I tell Spaw to bite my ass he wouldn't consider it an insult. If I wanted to insult him I would say something far more nasty and personal. I won't do that, because I like Catspaw. Now if you consider my comment an insult, that's your perception, and I reserve the right to not behave according to what your expectations might be.
Now excuse me, it's my turn in the Exercise Yard.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 11:53 AM

Is this where I can get my Mudcat Personna analyzed, or am I in the wrong thread?


For you, amigo, just 'cuz it's you, we'll do a deal. I'll analyze your persona for you, and you can bite my ass and swallow the cowboy hat which cost me seven years!!

While Lonesome presents the exterior image in his posts of a sensitive, brilliant, articulate, poetic, colorful, insightful author who somehow manages to write the best fiction on the 'Cat, with deep characterization and fast-moving plots and clever turns of event and beautifully crafted phrases, the sad truth is, the man is a goddam liar who has never done any of those things. In real life he stammers and blushes if you say "Good morning" and couldn't write a complete sentence if his life depended on it. He gets turned on by watching his Cheerios, and sleeps with a mauve stuffed rabbit, wears rubber shoes and gets by asking strangers for spare change at the local Home Depot, in gasping, broken phrases he somehow manages to blurt out.

You might well ask how he manages to create such a fraudulent persona, and indeed it is a good question, worthy of a sociological thesis. The short answer is, on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 11:55 AM

LOL!!! Omigod. Just about fell out of my chair here...

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: bfdk
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 12:33 PM

Don't leave a warm chair for too long, LH, you'll find it occupied by a dachshund when you come to reclaim it.

Terry..? TERRY!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 12:58 PM

wooot... My thread made 200 posts..

ummm now 201 posts

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 01:21 PM

Is this where I can get my Mudcat Personna analyzed, or am I in the wrong thread?
Hilarious and yes.. come be analised here. helps us kittens get to know y'all better.


Seriously, Virginia Plain or whatever you said your name was,
Don't know what that's about but I won't take it as fightin words. Just give you the benefit of doubt as you did ask for personna analyst.


don't get upset at the constant onslaught of invective and abuse that is our standard method of expressing affection at Mudcat.

I'm not upset... WHO SAID I WAS UPSET?

I am not upset

Snerk... am I fitting in yet?

Many of us are actually prisoners in various institutions scattered throughout the country, and we while away the hours by reinventing ourselves as Trad Music afficianados on this site.

That is throughout the world mate... not just the country

Really I don't mind the thread drift. I am learning to read between the lines and discovering colourful personalities in the "banter" in this and other threads.

Hugs to all

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: PoppaGator
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 03:58 PM

Leej ~ hilarious!

*********************************

MY THREAD MY THREAD! No spats. Back to your corners gentleman or I put you in the alley.

I know you've already taken it back, VT, but the above reminded me of one of my pet peeves ~ people claiming ownership of a discussion just because they posted the first message. I had never taken that attitude, never even imagined such a thing, and when I first encountered it, I simply thought it was just plain wrong.

~ I feel free to say anything on any thread ~ even something potentially quite stupid ~ with absolutely no regard for who posted the first message.

~ When I start a thread, it's because I have a question, or something to say, that no one else was expressing that day. Whatever happens after that...well, whatever!

As far as posting, or asking about, lyrics that are already extant in the huge archive of Mudcat posts plus the DT ~ don't feel too guilty about it, and don't accept any blame. The "search" function doesn't always work as advertised, or at least it began malfunctioning a couple of years ago after The Big Crash.

I've encountered this problem, been chastised, complained back, and finally was advised to use the "filter" rather than the "search." At first I didn't catch on ~ what's a filter? But then I figured out that the filter is the box near the center of the top of the main forum page where you enter what you're looking for and then set the period of time you want to search (the last 1 day, 3 days, 7 days, etc., up to "All"). It's different from the search box at the upper left where you can check "Forum," "DT," or both (which is the search that may not always work as well as it should.)

The "filter" is for searching the forum only, not the DT, but when seeking a song title, there's usually some reference in some thread, somewhere, about any DT title you'd be interested in, and you'll almost always be referred to a message or two contining a link directly to the DT entry in question.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 04:06 PM

The filter works by title only, though. If you are looking for something in a post, use the Search, or up in the drop-down menu you can find the DT Keyword Search, as well as the Forum Advanced Search which may work better.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 04:13 PM

But even those may fail. I, for example, find it very hard to believe that the word aardvark has never been used in the DT OR the Forum.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: PoppaGator
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 04:21 PM

"The filter works by title only, though..."

I didn't realize that. But, upon further consideration, I would think that it looks at thread titles ~ which may or may not include song titles.

Am I right, or on the right track?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 05:23 PM

and sleeps with a mauve stuffed rabbit,


It's not a rabbit, it's an elephant and I've been looking for him for years!!!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 05:23 PM

I believe it is only thread titles; often the thread title includes a song title, of course.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 07:43 PM

That's not a "mauve stuffed rabbit", Amos. It's Marv the Stuffed Rabbit. And you'd best not piss him off if you don't want purple pellets in your sneakers at the next Getaway.
As for the rest of your comments, thanks for the analysis of my online personna, but you left out handsome, dashing, sophisticated and debonair...but then you also left out the part about my real life fetish for the arm-fat of elderly slavic women, so I guess it's a wash.
Thanks Little Hawk for your comments, and good luck on your parole hearing.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 07:48 PM

Thanks, man. Oh, and by the way, bite my ass, numbnuts. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 07:53 PM

No problem, home boy. Spit on your hoohoo and shove it in a dealy-bob.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 07:57 PM

Roger that. The raven croaks at sunrise.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Ebbie
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 08:26 PM

Attenhut! I use the filter frequently and often I put in just one word of a title or subject and set it to ALL. It comes up reliably with all of the titles containing that word.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 08:46 PM

But it won't find "dealybob" or "aardvark".


LEJ: ROFLMAO!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Gurney
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 10:16 PM

Strange. At least one member is in the Aardvark Ceildh Band.

Fame. A fickle mistress.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 07:32 AM

Aardvark never killed anybody!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 08:35 AM

how lovely to be a member of the mudcat family

Just thought it would be good to inject a little of the really positive things that go on here in Mudcatatonia.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 08:46 AM

Like the folks who sent money to help Art Thieme get software? Or those who sent money from all over the world to help openmic when she was burned out of her home this past summer while fighting the wildfire that burned her out? Or...I could go on, but I won't.

Sometime the virtual community becomes very real.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 10:48 AM

That's only the good things you hear about. I've had parcels of goodies, an unsolicited CD's from lovely Catters. I know others who've had similar tokens of friendship too
It's some community folks I'll tell you.

XG

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 11:19 AM

If I typed up all the good stuff that just *I* have received from various good people here, I'd be at it all day.


This is a big, weird extended FAMILY...we go through a lot, but mostly we care and show it.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 12:05 PM

I think you will find, VT, as you meet the denizens of this forum face to face (and I hope you will meet many), that most of these folks are very much as they appear to be in the threads. Because this is primarily an acoustic music site, most of these people are fun-loving, and not very shy. Some of us are fun-loving nearly to a fault (Peace Cabin all night jam, anyone?), and we have enjoyed the repartee for so long that some of the stuff may seem like in-jokes from the "Mudcat Inner-circle". I reckon we just can't help that. It's the same thing you'll see if you join in with any long-running jam session. There's often a familiarity among the usual participants that may seem intimidating at first. But when they start giving you a hard time with a smile, you know you're breaking the ice.
I would not worry too much about rules. These people don't grade hard. Beginners are always welcome.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: ClaireBear
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 01:13 PM

Amos will possibly be ecstatic to learn that I have now started a thread with the word "aardvark" appearing in the text and the word "aardvarks" appearing in the title. It's even a music thread! Search away...

(I am demonstrating being fun-loving, lest anyone wonder about the latest thread drift. Any yes, I was in the Peace Cabin all-night jam, come to think of it.)

Claire

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 02:46 PM

Oh, CLaire, I just don't know HOW to thank you, unless you're up for a little slap-and-tickle next Getaway...



A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: ClaireBear
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 02:49 PM

You be the big game hunter, and I'll be the, umm, bear.

C

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 03:01 PM

I am happy to report thatby doing a Google Search of Mudcat only it has been revealed that the term "aardvark" has about 347 hits scattered through the domain's history.

I just KNEW it had to be there.

Google has gotten so good at digging stuff up (even where the forum advanced search doesn't) perhaps it ought to be built into the search machinery.

The construction syntax for doing this is:

aardvark site:mudcat.org

typed into a Google search box. Substitutye any search term for "aardvark". Such as, for example, "dealybob", which has apparently never been used until Lonesome stuck it in upthread.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 03:03 PM

I don't remember any bears, but I seem to remember a caterpillar named Claire curled up in a cocoon on the front porch of Peace Cabin that Saturday night (Sunday morning). Although it was giggling as it was serenaded by a gang of moths, I'm not sure when it metamorphasized into the butterfly I saw Sunday afternoon. Must have been the magic of the full moon!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: ClaireBear
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 03:08 PM

No, LEJ, the caterpillar was someone else entirely (Linda, to be precise). I assure you I was inside all night, getting to know my chromatic Strumstick and making a fool of myself singing harmony.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 04:02 PM

"I assure you I was inside all night, getting to know my chromatic Strumstick"


Well I've heard it called some names before, but that's new one on me Claire ;)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Megan L
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 04:13 PM

MacKenzie BEHAVE dont mak me send Granny doon there

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 04:14 PM

Well, it's very nice that they make them with music, now.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: ClaireBear
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 04:19 PM

Thank you, Megan, for leaping into the breach (NOT to be confused with the breeches, Giok!) in my defence -- Mudcat behaviour at its best!

Indeed, Giok, assuming that your mind is running in the particular gutter in which I believe it is running, I would be quite surprised to find that I had one of those!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: ClaireBear
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 04:21 PM

Oh, did he mean one of those? Well, I don't have one of them either...being a bear, I just rub up against a tree when I have an itch that needs scratching.

C

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: SINSULL
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 04:23 PM

I forget...whose butt was it pressed against the window for Joe Offer's benefit? Fortunately, he kept his strumstick in check.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 04:27 PM

Erm...I need the litter tray for a minute..

Does anyone know where that 'singer songwriter' thread has gone? 'cos I can't find it. I've tried typing that into the 'knowledge' and 'search' bits, but nowt of that description comes up.

Being a Total Dimwit about these things, I wonder if any of Ye Ancient, Godlike and Respected Cats could help a chubby little, somewhat irritating, but warm and friendly, almost-ancient cat to locate it.

Purrrrrrr! ;0)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Jeri
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 04:34 PM

Not the one from October? It's often more effective to only use one unique word i9n a search, and to use the 'Filter' instead of the 'Lyrics and knowledge' search.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Jeri
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 04:35 PM

Sorry. I think my c9mputer's infected with the JOhn from Hull virus.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 04:42 PM

Ah! Lovely! Thanks, Jeri..that's *exactly* the right one! :0)

I'm off to tattoo 'filter, filter, filter' on to my hands now, so I won't forget again. Darn brain cell of mine!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 04:53 PM

Oops, Claire, sorry I mixed you two up. That was a Lindapillar indeed.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 05:15 PM

Impure thoughts Claire! Moi?
I don't ever do that, not since I was set right by one wiser than me.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 06:52 PM

Yes, I try, I try.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 08:34 PM

Nothing like a thread about the ethics of life on the Mudcat to get a pretty massive response. We like to examine our consciences...

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 10:04 PM

...to make sure the loopholes are intact,,,,



A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 10:46 PM

What's a "conscience"? Would it be fun to take it out and fondle it and examine it? Can I do this to someone else if they agree?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Gurney
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 11:32 PM

Molest the conscience of consenting purportive adults, Rap?

Isn't that what we do, below the line?
Specifically allowed in the rules!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 05:53 AM

I ain't never dun no mole testing, never mate!

But as the good man said, you should try everything once except incest and folk dancing.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 06:10 AM

And so dear reader, I married him.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 11:03 AM

I'd like to buy one of those consciences. Preferably a nice one, but cheap. Perhaps a used one. Just to, you know, try it out.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 11:06 AM

Consciences - harrummph!

Bloody things keep you awake nights, they do. I am always having to throw a shoe at mine.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 11:50 AM

That happened to Bush

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 12:03 PM

too bad it wasn't the conscience that happened to Bush. then there would have (one would hope) been no need for the shoe.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 12:43 PM

VT reveals herself as a true member of the Gigantic Enormous Covert Hidden Secret Bleeding-Heart Socialist Pinko Commie Bastard Left-Wing Conspiracy!! Yayyyyyyy!



A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 12:50 PM

If you could kindly add 'anarcho' and 'libertarian' to the above, then pray tell where does one sign up?

Oooops, and you forgot 'Numpty' btw. I have been knitting badly printed leaflets from free-range llamas all week, my fingers are raw with revolutionary toil. Wouldn't want to have to do a second batch.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 01:21 PM

Ho! Ho! Ho Chi Minh! NLF is going to win!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 01:37 PM

VT reveals herself

eyebrows raised ... I thought ASS revelations was in the Scraps, Feuds, etc. thread.

anyway... have I not been obviously as left as left can be in this and other threads?

what are people thinking of me?

I am an anarchist, I am an antichrist, don't know what I want but I know how to get it.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Matt_R
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 04:36 PM

STFU N00BS! Just kidding! :D

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 12 Jan 09 - 03:54 PM

huh?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 06:53 AM

Well this Kit has learned loads in the last few days what with threads and threats going around different forums. A forum closing and accusations flying on yet another site.

Wondering why old scars must be exposed and univited descriptions at how they were got, shared with others who can never (nor should they)know exactly what happened. This just opens old wounds and creates new ones in others.

It all seems like the same type of "he said that" and "she did this" and " Mom, he's looking at me" crap I heard from my kids when they were young.

I would like to say as an experienced Mom. Keep your battles private. It does not look well to try and rally support. Get it into your heads that sometimes life is not fair. Don't let bad experiences ruin everything that is good. Show respect for your selves, for each other and for the rest of us not involved. Do your genuine best to work out problems privately. Pay attention to what you say and how it may be perceived by others. Be willing to forgive and accept forgiveness.

Can we do that? Please?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 07:18 AM

I'm afraid VT, that for some people vendettas are a way of life.
In the same way as normal people need someone to love, these sickos need someone to hate.
I pity them for their sad little lives and petty obsessions.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 07:51 AM

sigh...

I appreciate how you feel, but does name calling and blaming help the situation?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: peregrina
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 08:05 AM

I think VirginianTam's post of, I think, 6.53, would bear repetition or inclusion in the FAQs. John M is right, of course, that people will be they way they are. But forum posts are a kind of public speech that lasts, is accessible to others, and creates a collective identity for this community.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 08:59 AM

Yes peregrina, and this is why this sort of person surfaces on the internet.
In real life, nobody will listen to them.
In real life people will interrupt their pusillanimous tripe with logical arguments.
In real life they might have to admit to the possibility that they might just be wrong about something.
On the internet, they can post, and sit back with a smug little smile and say.
'THERE, THAT TOLD THEM'

It's a monologue and not a dialogue in fora like this one.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 09:16 AM

I suppose am naive. My apologies go to a friend who pointed this out to me in pm and I took exception. He was right.   

I want to believe the best of everyone. Guess I will always be a kitten, never a cat.

Well, I still love the Mudcat and really enjoy most of what goes on here. That is the greatest lesson.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 09:47 AM

No doubt, it's a great site, and I have made many good friends on here. I always take people at face value, and trust them until they prove unworthy of that trust.
It can be very disillusioning to have ones trust abused, but on the whole it's better to be naive and trusting, than to be suspicious and defensive all the time.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Gurney
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 08:20 PM

John, the trouble with 'taking on face value' on an internet site is that you can't see their faces!
I have misinterpreted comments here, and had mine misinterpreted, too.
People such as Amos, LH, Rapaire, Gnu, WLD, and in fact the vast majority of posters are NOT being agressive. They will pick you up if they disagree with you, but that is the free exchange of opinion, which is covered in the rules of the site. I usually picture them typing with a wry grin on their faces. I've never SEEN their faces.
In the several years that I've been here there has never been nastiness that was not interrupted by Joe or the clones.
All anyone needs here is a love of music and a normal skin thickness. The excessively thin-skinned would be better served to stay above the line, and only 'lurk' down here in the pits, because this is the bullshit area.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Janie
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 08:31 PM

Two things I try to keep in mind, (not always successfully) in both the 3-d world and cyberspace:

Personalities. Everybody's got one.

and

I don't have a dog in this fight.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Matt_R
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 10:44 PM

:facepalm:

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 10:51 PM

I want a kitten but I am worried that my dog who is very jealous of my attention might bear envy of attention given a cat.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: catspaw49
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 11:10 PM

Donnie, Mn, you're sniffin' glue again aintcha? Yeah.........thought so............Say, is it a cheap brand?   I'm kinda' short on cash..............

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 17 Jan 09 - 11:19 PM

Mbo:

You have transcended all normal human modes of communication!!

Provide translation to earthlings!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 04:05 AM

I know ... how bad is it when n00bs don't even know what n00b means!

This is Facepalm

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 05:54 AM

p'raps he's daubed some of that glue on his palm.

maybe that's the name of the glue. Try Facepalm for those times when you just don't want to know.

la la la having a faceplam glue moment..

My name is Thwartin. I come from Flendropoli. It is near Yulmopia on the Anteswertian Plain. The Rudinoceri have destroyed the wild Yatzoming bushes. I had Jeeklurp for breakfast. The goats are afraid.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 06:16 AM

This thread has become most strangely surreal. Like I missed out reading the middle bit somehow..

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 06:51 AM

Do what so many others do Rosie, just read the last message, and post accordingly.
¦¬]

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 09:27 AM

Blimey! If the goats are afraid, then there's no hope left...

We're not coming down till Thwartin's gone!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 09:40 AM

See!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 11:19 AM

Yup. That's what happens. The goats flee up trees and I agree with them, in theory anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 12:14 PM

Good gollygee... I only knicked some bits of a children's story I wrote and put it into secretagent speak.

You'd think I was crazy or sumfink.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Amos
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 12:15 PM

LOL!! VT, you are a gem.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: GUEST,Matt_R
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 02:56 PM

I thought it was Stanley Unwinese!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 04:17 PM

really nothing like Stanley Unwin, Matt.

Story was inspired by unwords instead.

After the 3 periods substitute teaching a French III class where the only resource left by teacher was word search puzzle full of French words. In the 1st period I found the French words. In the 2nd period I found some English words. In the 3rd period I started seeing potentially funny unwords. Jeeklurp was the first and I thought what a funny word. What can it mean? So I defined it. A cool refreshing treat made with goat yogurt and fruit of the Jeek tree. Jeek tree is descended or cultivated from the wild Yatzoming, which used to grow on the Anteswertian plain until the Rudinoceri (or so it was erroneously reported) ate them all. Actually human cultivation changed the Yatzoming and the Rudinoceri went away. The goats were afraid because Thwartin had suddenly grown a beard. A thing not seen on the people of Anteswert. But the beard growing only happened to the Flendroplian males and not the Yulmopians which eventually caused great battles between these once friendly people.   

I just couldn't help myself.. several stories were born out of this exercise.

All I can say is beware of word search puzzles. That way danger lies.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 05:48 PM

Funny you should say that... found a French wordsearch in Limpit's school bag the other day... and started looking for German words.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 04:15 PM

LTS - that is spooky. Care to write a story from the words you found?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: ClaireBear
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 05:54 PM

(And how's that school bag working out, by the way? Enquiring minds want to know...)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 06:41 PM

She loves it and it has raised comments from classmates I think...

Thank you!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: ClaireBear
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 07:00 PM

Oh good. And I wasn't fishing for thanks, honest -- I was merely a little unsure about the bag's quality, only having seen it online.

Glad to know it's sturdy enough to withstand Limpet's schoolbooks!

Cheers,
Claire

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 06:50 PM

Oh it's standing up to its duties with gusto! It also helps when picking it out from the pile in the playground that no-one else has one like it!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 07:33 AM

I think the discussion regards Limpet's schoolbag is just a bit beyond the Pale.

Get it? exceeding the "Rules" of this thread... snerk

I thought that was quite clever.

Hey, now I am curious! What kind of school bag? Any pics?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: MaineDog
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 08:17 AM

Welcome, Virginia,
Be not faint of heart.
You may not believe it, but Mudcat was far worse when I came in about 5 years ago.
MD

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: ClaireBear
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 12:15 PM

(description of rule-breaking bag sent by PM)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Megan L
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 12:22 PM

Claire the problem was not whether it was strong enough to withstand her schoolbooks but if it could withstand Limpit. Such a sweet delicate little thing she is (Oh how i wish max had a rofl icon) :)

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: GUEST,LTS pretending to work
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 07:29 AM

She was a sweet little pink-loving thing until that trip to Scotland a couple of years ago....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: bfdk
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 08:28 AM

You insulting Meg's pink outfit, Liz? :o)))

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Megan L
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 12:17 PM

Whatch it the pair o ye ahm fair scunnered

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 03:59 PM

Eye eye Meg

¦¬]

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Megan L
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 04:01 PM

And as fur youMcKenzie :p yer naethin but a tumshie hieded bauchle wie a face like a skelped erse

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 05:03 PM

Aye Meg, an' whit are ye gaun tae dae fur a face, when the monkey wants his arse back?

¦¬]

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 05:08 PM

Now, tsk, tsk, the two of ya. I want ya both at the kirk o' Sunday to repent.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 12:48 AM

Mudcat kindness

Another good thing for kittens to learn is about the kindness of catters. I have been loaned (and may soon be purchasing same) a lovely Sigma guitar by a Mudcatter.

Another pleading guitar thread

This place is amazing.

I should mention another catter Richard Bridge has loaned me a mandolin, but he offered it at a session in Rochester so we had the acquainted in real life element.

Still such nice folks here.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 12:57 AM

i just realised that if i add 2 more posts this thread will make it to

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 12:58 AM

300

Woot! I did it!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: GUEST,LTS pretending to work
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 07:57 AM

And there you have the ultimate experience... that little warm glow that either means you've scored a '00' posting or you need a clean pair of pants.

But if you think that's good, wait till you hit 1000 posts!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: GUEST,biff
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 07:01 PM

actually I've had my share of problems too, though I hope I've acheived at least an existential status at this point, that is, the right of my posts to exist...sometimes I'm not sure of what constitutes appropriate mudcat humour and what doesn't and have reaped consequences..I've also felt a certain attitude towards guests, but there are very good reasons why I am a guest and not a member, details of which I shall not trouble you with. Not everyone is set up to have an instant cyber life. That being said, this is an excellent site with much intelligence and humour. And I always learn something.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Jeri
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 07:18 PM

If you were to use a consistent guest identity, your posts wouldn't be deleted. If you use no name or jump from persona to persona, you're gonna get zapped.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: GUEST,biff
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 07:24 PM

this has been understood.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Jeri
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 07:51 PM

Sorry. I don't have that much to say these days unless I can re-state the obvious.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: akenaton
Date: 27 Jan 09 - 08:03 PM

Hmmm!

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 28 Jan 09 - 03:59 AM

Jeri - sometimes the obvious is so obvious no-one bothers to pass it on any more. That way we lose so much information (like song books that never publish the B music or only put in choruses, not the verses), so it bears repeating. There is always someone new who hasn't read it before, even if they don't make themselves obvious.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 19 Feb 09 - 01:27 PM

I learnded a new thing today.

If a long disused thread is ressurected by a guest, with a really dumb question, don't reply to it.

It is almost always a wind up. D'oh!

Whoever the mod elf was that fixed the silly request for lyrics to hymn number 78, and my glaringly naive reply, thank you.

You fixed it so good, I thought I was going crazy cuz I couldn't find the thread or my reply.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 17 Mar 09 - 02:26 PM

think i'll just hide out in here for a while. it is scarey out there and i am feeling too delicate to cope with either the wit or the venom.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 11 May 09 - 04:38 PM

Hiding in here, licking my wounds for a bit. Getting scary out there again.

I love that people are passionate about preserving the music they love, but I am afraid that preservation may kill it off.

Think I am too simple minded for Mudcat.

Sigh!

Wish I could start a Happy Birthday Andie thread. She would be 28 years old tomorrow. She would have fit in very well here. Passionate and curious about music. Intelligent and informed and ready to defend her ideas and opnions.

Sigh again.

Ok. Pouting in corner over now. Get back into the fray.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 May 09 - 04:45 PM

You could start a happy birthday/memoriam, Andie thread, VTam. I think that would be fine; if you felt strong enough, you could share more about her, with us. Don't worry about those other threads; it'll settle down, again.:-)

{{{{hugs}}}}}

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: wysiwyg
Date: 11 May 09 - 06:03 PM

Happy Birthday in honor of Andie. I want to know all about you. I hope we get a chance.....

!!!VT!!!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 06:29 AM

The one thing about Mudcat that really makes me want to leave it, walk away and never look back is frustration.

Not the frustration of feeling so dull in the midst of vibrant intelligent articulate people, though this does make me feel insecure and ashamed of my lack. I have learned to accept that I am not the sharpest tool in the box. A rubber mallet has its uses too.

Not the frustration of repeatedly mean spirited posters and the silliness of letting them get a rise out me and others. Though this bugs me I am mature enough to realise people are who they are and everyone has off days. I can live with it.

The thing see.... the thing that really upsets me most about Mudcat is the virtual meeting of so many people and the horror of not ever having the opportunity to meet them person, to hear them perform, to discover and remember the intonations, facial expressions, turns of phrase. And it is the loss I feel when a Mudcatter passes away, that I did not know and only came to know through others and from archive threads.


It is the furstration that I am missing something that I will never be able to gain.

So that is the danger of Mudcat for me.

I won't go, though. At least not yet.


For now, the fascination is stronger than the frustration.

Think I will dedicate this specific post to Sandy Paton. I didn't know him, though I believe his recent passing just kicked over the bucket of culminating anxiousness about missing out on seeing and hearing Mudcat people.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: maeve
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 07:30 AM

I feel similarly about many of the music and musicians I can never know. Fortunately, Sandy left a legacy of people who did know him and many wonderful recordings, VT, including those he made himself with his Caroline.

Buying some of them for yourself when you can do so is at once a way to experience some wonderful music, enrich your own life, gain a sense of the quality of person Sandy was, and lend a hand to Sandy's family and company, Folk Legacy .



maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 07:48 AM

Cheer up lassie, surely the friends you have will see you through. No good missing folks you never met, or are unlikely ever to meet.
Live for today, and hope you meet somebody nice, who may turn out to be your most important friend ever.
Don't dwell in the past.

"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there".
L P Hartley, The Go Between.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: jeddy
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 07:52 AM

i have only just seen this thread. i too feel like i have missed an oppotunaty to get to know some wonderful people. however life is for the living abnd i intend to stay here for a while yet and in that time i hope to make some brilliant friends and find new artists to listen to.

in the short while i have been a kitten i have learned alot and hope to learn alot more.

however i have CRAFT. can't rememebr a fu**ing thing.
so things have to jog my memory, it is a good job there is so much repetition here as some of it might finally sink in.

take care all

jade x x x x

ps i will try to catch up on this thread but it is big so it will take some time. x x

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: GUEST,Russ Meyer
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 08:03 AM

It's a pity the rules don't apply on any of the BNP threads, this current one is the fourth in as many weeks, if you post on it, expect attacks, verbal,fake profiles,lies, and a lot more.

Have to say, Joe does come on and clean it up every so often, more needed done about threads like these.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Jeri
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 08:51 AM

One thing about Mudcat is it makes the neighborhood seem so BIG. We'll never meet everybody we want to meet, and some we do meet can only be in our lives for a short while.

It's a hard way to go and get lost somewhere in the thousands of miles it takes to get through all the open, welcoming doors, and those doors close too quickly.

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 09:05 AM

Well, quite the weirdest thing is that VT was possibly the first person I exchanged PM's with - (me thinking at the time she lived in Virginia USA as per her handle.) Then about half a dozen exchanges later, it dawned on me, that we actually live no more than 20 minutes away from each other!

It was almost like Mudcat magically spirited her across the pond in the blink of an eye...

As far as Mudcat goes, she's as good as my next door neighbour. And a good chum to boot.

I've been warmly accepted by the Knockholt folks and will keep going to the various Kent do's now.

Otherwise, I'm also definitely going to take a trip North sometime this Autumn, and catch up in person with some of the UK posters from up thataway.

So you never know who you WILL meet, hey?

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: jeddy
Date: 01 Aug 09 - 07:43 PM

i can't wait to find out who is who from our festie circit of festies, i wonder how many of you i have already met? but that doesn't mean i can't wait to meet those of you who have so far evaded me! i will get you yet.


mmmmm lies? like anyone decent is going to believe a word!

take care all, even very lonely people who should have more in their lives.

jade x x x x

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 07:27 AM

Jeddy

That's what the mudcat tshirts are useful for. Wear it at festivals and look for others wearing them.

Or you could make hat out of a banjo with a catfish stuck to it. That should really get attention.

Some Cats will say that is a better use of a banjo than its intended purpose

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: jeddy
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 07:41 AM

virginia,
i have bought one, but have not been to festies this year. i have been wearing it round town and stuff but i guess it won't come into it's own until until next year now. unless we can squeeze in a couple before winter.

take care all

jade x x x

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 07:45 AM

Squeeze a couple in your tee shirt??
Sorry, just a thought.
J

Subject: RE: BS: Rules for Kittens in Mudcattery
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 02 Aug 09 - 07:56 AM

John

My partner just asked me "doesn't it already squeeze in a couple?" In my case it would if I had a mudcat tshirt.

Are you returned from your North America trip yet?