BS: why Mudcat?

Subject: BS: why Mudcat?
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 10:23 AM

why not Google groups?

or maybe lease Microsoft's Outlook Express

I'm guessing it derives from a Bulletin Board thingy which pre-dates these upstarts

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 10:31 AM

" derives from a Bulletin Board thingy"
Nope...

Why not do a little research before asking vague questions?

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: s&r
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 10:36 AM

If you've got to ask the question you wouldn't understand the answer

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: Amos
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 11:40 AM

WHy not? Besides, we have been dancing with the Cat since Sergei Brin was still trying to figure out Mario Brothers.

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: Becca72
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 12:27 PM

Because my dad told me to... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: mayomick
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 12:35 PM

my dad did too

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: Wesley S
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 01:26 PM

Because at Google groups you can't find a consensus to the age old question "What is folk music?".

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 01:31 PM

Wesley, now you've done it.

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 04:47 PM

The question is "Why?"; and the question is hot!
'Cos the question is new (come on, don't lose the plot)
Now some here may answer, though some here cannot.
The answer is always "Because!", or "Why not?".

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: The Sandman
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 05:32 PM

if u want 2 no wot folk music is, ask a horse, but not a dead horse.

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: olddude
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 05:33 PM

would you prefer muddogs ?

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 05:37 PM

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

One thing of course is because there are a bunch of people who regularly post here that wouldn't come together anywhere else, and I'd miss them. And a shared history.

Also, I've never come across an online forum which doesn't feel clunky and unnavigable compared to the Cat. They just don't work. Several times I've asked people who criticise aspects of the Mudcat to point me in the direction of somewhere that does it better. Based on any subject. No one has ever been able to do that for me. This place is subtly brilliant.

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 05:45 PM

I give thanks regularly to **Jeff** (Pene Azul), who did much of the original design & programming of features. Not that Max can't do stuff, but Jeff was special.

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 05:45 PM

I guess the main reason everybody ends up here is that Mudcat has already accumulated a huge amount of information and it's all searchable.

Reddit, by comparison, doesn't have a complete search. Imagine being able to search only the title of a thread and the first message in each thread. That usually means that a question is searchable but the answer is not. Also, every thread only stays on the front page for a day or so and then it disappears forever. You can still find the thread with a search (provided, of course, what you're searching for is in the title or the first message) and for the first six months, you can add new messages to it, but the thread will never be "refreshed," that is, it will never appear on the front page again, so nobody will know that you added a message (unless they happen to find the thread by searching for it themselves). Therefore people almost never bother to search for old threads or add messages to them. People keep starting new threads about popular subjects all the time. There is a lot of redundancy, and a lot of turnover of members. People don't work very hard to do research, either, knowing that whatever they post will disappear almost as soon as it is posted. Reddit is fine if you only want to have a conversation and then you don't care if your words will never be seen again, but it's terrible as a place to try to store or look up information.

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 06:57 PM

I don't recall offhand whether it was Reddit or Twitter, but one of them announced last week that they were "expanding their search" to include posts beyond two weeks old. Until they complete this revision, NOTHING more than that age can be found with their site search.

Here, you can go back to the First Post at Mudcat and with a little work you can retrieve anything that was ever here. (The first post is #4 because the first few "setup" posts were deleted.) This is a very important difference for anyone who actually wants to learn (or share) something, instead of just pasting the latest recycle of ancient urban lies.

It is not at all uncommon here for a question asked in a thread to be answered ten or more years later, or for discussion to continue. On many of the "social sites" three minutes old isn't news anymore (and most of it probably wasn't when posted).

John

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: gnu
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 07:26 PM

Bill D... Yes, Jeff was cool... I always wondered what happened... where is he now? I sent $ to the Mudcat established fund to help him out when his Dad got sick. An update would be welcome.

In addition to all of the positive posts above, as I have said MANY times... Max's dedication to free speech save ONE RULE is exemplary for all internet sites. It is truly inspiring and to be lauded at every turn.

So... thanks for the umpteenth time, Max.

And, he has a beagle so he must be a VERY tolerant man... maybe the beagle taught him patience???

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: JHW
Date: 01 Mar 13 - 05:28 AM

Mudcat is very helpful but it isn't that searchable. Sometime it works, often it doesn't.
Going outside to Google will find what you want in Mudcat that Mudsearches can't.
But if I remember right we're not supposed to talk about Mudcat purr se on Mudcat.

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: Megan L
Date: 01 Mar 13 - 05:45 AM

because "daft auld beggers who should know better but obviously don't" didn't fit across the top.

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 01 Mar 13 - 10:04 AM

folk music.....?

too obvious, I suppose.

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Mar 13 - 10:29 AM

Mudcat was originally started by Max for discussion of BLUES, and the name derives from that connection.

When the folkish Digital Tradition lost the sponsorship of it's previous site, Max offered them a new home.

The merging of the two, folk and blues, evolved into what we are now.

There wasn't that much of anything very interesting on the web when it started, and I actually had to wait a couple of years after I found it to log in because I didn't have an email account then.

There are very few sites that have been (successfully) around for as long as mudcat, and in my opinion even fewer that deserve the respect that mudcat has earned.

Thanks again, Max (and all the loyal elfs).

John

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: MartinRyan
Date: 01 Mar 13 - 12:16 PM

There wasn't that much of anything very interesting on the web when it started

Not many people know that! ;>)>
Well said.

Regards

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Mar 13 - 12:28 PM

Because it's there!

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: gnu
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 06:47 AM

JiK... quite the "coincidence" that the merging of the two sites have provided even more insight into the history and development of both genres and their influence on each other. I find THAT one simple aspect of Mudcat to be remarkable.

Mudcat

Digital Tradition

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: Claire M
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 02:59 PM

Hiya,

Some of us aren't old anyway. Do you mean

#1 – why is/was it called Mudcat, or
#2 – why are we on it??

If you mean #1 it's to do with a song/band

if #2 – I use it because I love folk/blues, & am a bit paganny, & don't know too many others who do/are – they seem to think I'm a bit strange! I could talk about all of this all day, & I can do that with you lot.

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: skarpi
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 04:43 PM

if not for Mudcat , I had never met those great people and friends all over the world ...:) ...since 1995 0r 6 can´t remember ...

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: number 6
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 04:51 PM

Why??

Because I'm mad, all of us here are mad ... otherwise we wouldn't have come here

that's why

biLL   .. ;)

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 04:58 PM

What are you mad about, sIx?

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: Ed T
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 05:04 PM

Because if people were not key boarding here, they would likely be playing with their instrument (annoying family and neighbours),drinking or smoking more, picking their nose, or playing with themselves.

It is just the best alternative from the lot.

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: number 6
Date: 02 Mar 13 - 06:50 PM

"What are you mad about, sIx? "

not 'mad' as in angry ... 'mad' as in .... oh forget it.

now,

on the subject of angry

I'm Damned, DARNED angry that Guests can post to threads here in the Madcat.


biLL

[this Guest is actually a regular member. Perhaps it would care to take credit for the post?]

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: gnu
Date: 03 Mar 13 - 06:30 AM

Perfectly okay for guests to post IF they follow the rules. I can understand why a guest might not know the rules. It's up to the mods to decide if an OP by a guest is acceptable and I think they were correct this time (as usual). Of course, there is even an exception to the exception but it's all in the newcomer guide and discussed in a number of threads.

I hope you feel better now, six.

"on the subject of" loony toons... thank goodness! Otherwise, I would be mad.

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: kendall
Date: 03 Mar 13 - 06:45 AM

Where else can you go and get educated and insulted at the same time?

Subject: RE: BS: why Mudcat?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 03 Mar 13 - 02:11 PM

Most people who are interested in folk music have a social conscience, a base for being interested in folk music to begin with. Mudcat offers a chance to exercise that "conscience" by allowing views to be expressed that you won't find on other blogs particularly run by Google or Outlook Express. On Mudcat, no holds barred discussions can occur and many are illuminating if sometimes contentious.

Folk music in my opinion is not just about "scalp collecting". It's about being involved in a process that includes views of a social nature.