Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -22 years

Subject: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Helen
Date: 02 Oct 18 - 03:50 PM

Hi all,

To celebrate Mudcat's 20th birthday, I am starting this thread so that you can tell us your best - or worst, or funniest, or saddest, or happiest or whateverist moments on Mudcat.

I'll be adding more later but this is still my best Mudcat moment - 15 years ago. I know it wasn't the record for the fastest Mudcat answer to a question, but answering such a personally important mystery which he had been wondering about for over 30 years really made me happy because it made him happy.

Other important moments were meeting some Mudcateers in person, e.g. Alison, Bob Bolton, and Hilda Fish whose secret santa present I still cherish and who revealed that her mother was music and cultural "royalty" in Oz - one of my absolute heroes for her songs and her commitment to justice for indigenous people.

So what are your most memorable Mudcat moments?

Helen

Helen

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Oct 18 - 05:00 PM

My first meeting with lots of Mudcatters in about March of 1999, at Rick Fielding's concert in Washington, DC. I live in California, but I joined the Folklore Society of Greater Washington and I've been to their annual Fall Getaway most years since then.

And then in 2002, Dick Greenhaus and Susan of DT and I rented a house in Whitby and met lots of Mudcatters at Whitby Folk Week. For a week before and a week after, UK Mudcatters hosted me at their homes and made sure I had music every night. And since then, I've met and sung with Martin Ryan and a lot of other Mudcatters in Ireland.

And in recent years, I started a habit of traveling to the Getaway with North Carolina Mudcatters, spending a week or so with them before or after the Getaway. And in 2014, Amos, Abby Sale, Dani, and I went to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

And a number of Mudcatters have visited me here in California.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: bbc
Date: 02 Oct 18 - 05:01 PM

met dharmabum!

bbc

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: frogprince
Date: 02 Oct 18 - 10:00 PM

I've been fortunate enough to meet at least thirteen members in person since I stumbled in. I guess the single moment that stands out for me is posting in very painful circumstances and receiving an obviously heartfelt international phone call within moments.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: GUEST,akenaton
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 03:19 AM

Well, I have been posting here for fourteen years and met some of the nicest people....and nastiest people.
I've learned a lot from folks here especially on my last thread regarding "guitar playing", I was touched by the number of people who offered advice and practical help.
The worst moment was when the moderators started interfering in controversial threads by deleting all alternative views, posts, and even whole threads which contradicted their personal opinions.
This is an outrageous abuse of power and a disgraceful attack on freedom of expression.
The BS section is now a sick joke, ruled by a small UK cabal, backed by the moderators.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: The Sandman
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 04:08 AM

I agree AKE, but the moderatrs are volunteers and are doing this in their spare time, they have a dfficult task trying to deal with childish behaviour , some of these so called adults woulkd be better employed practising their music instead of behaving like puerile idiots , adults should be able to exercise self discipline.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 04:52 AM

A lot of good common sense there Sandman.....you of course fall into the nicest category. Thanks again for your advice which is bearing fruit....I have become much more confident and relaxed.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Mooh
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 07:58 AM

Spaw.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Mo the caller
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 08:38 AM

I had just joined Mudcat, my daughter and I were struggling to get notes out of a cheap plastic fife. I asked for suggestions for tunes that only used the few notes we could blow, and back came the generous offer of a book of tunes posted all the way from America. I was amazed.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Mo the caller
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 08:54 AM

Then there is this thread (https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?)threadid=137028#3585000
"The Egg"
and "Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Egg + [add lyrics]
From: Mo the caller - PM
Date: 07 Oct 13 - 04:22 AM

I've heard this song twice in my life. The first back in the late 1950's at a conference for 6th formers; the singer also gave us Down Below - a song about sewers. Then, after having my memory refreshed by this thread it popped up at Bromyard, sung by Will Noble. "

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Mo the caller
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 08:57 AM

And perhaps the worst is trying to make links on my newish computer - When I copy & paste they just come out as text. Is this me, Windows, or the computer?

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: C-flat
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 09:25 AM

I think the old "Dr. Guitar" threads were genius.
I laughed 'til I ached.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: voyager
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 10:16 AM

Back around 2000 I bid on a 1964 copy of the Newport Folk Festival program for a Mudcat auction. I won and the book came with a personalized note from the editor - 'kytrad'

Hello Tim- Just returned late last night from San Antonio, too tired to look at mail, so today, here's your note on my personal page. Glad you got the Newport Songbook- I don't suppose there are many of them left in the world! I had been waiting to hear from you, to know what to do, as I had promised Susan I'd write some sort of note for it. It'll go out tomorrow. Congratulations, and all the best! Jean Ritchie

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Rapparee
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 10:28 AM

I have been a music stand.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 12:02 PM

Best:

The 2 gatherings, Llanstock and Yorkshire, superbly managed by Llanfair and "The Ducks" respectively were excellent but I'd say the best for me was getting Hearme (later moved to Paltalk) set up and having people in different parts of the world give songs or tunes together. One song could be from say Jacko in NZ, the next from say Dave TAM in Canada, then say me in UK, etc. and it felt quite "groundbreaking" back in the day.

Worst:

While I've had quite a few of my own "moments", I'll not try to put this down to an event but instead suggest a loss of nativity/innocence. In the early days, it felt like we were "pioneers" in a world somehow detached from the real one but for me at any rate, the point was reached that not only still in the real world in many way, I was finding myself in (some, at best, not helped by myself...) new rows; and I'd add a later realisation that some things such as long "what is folk" (or related) do not reflect the folk world I try to particpate in which is more about accepting what the event is and getting on with making music...

Of course that's personal but I don't think the early "pioneering spirit" can exist for anyone now?

Ake:
Got to disagree with you. I've never met Joe, nor communicated with him in a while, nor ever discussed any "moderation" (things were slightly different back when I was a "mod" (or JoeClone as we were known as in the day) and closing threads was a later option) outside the period when I was "involved" but I think I've some idea as to his outlook. I'd know less or nothing about others but I'd think one principle (possibly even started by Max) remains openness in discussion. I guess there may be inconsistencies but I don't view what I perceive as an increasingly angry (just in certain areas) forum and trying to balance "fairness" with "nastiness" as being an envious task and, of course, peoples' views on what constitutes either of these criteria does vary. Anyway, enough of that in this thread...

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Jeri
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 12:49 PM

It started out with fixing HTML and such. "BS" didn't exist when I came on board. Max added that because one member complained (fairly nicely) that people were talking about non-music things. The "BS" was sort of a joke. But we could have tavern threads, and threads about movies and food recipes and everything else. Including politics - there were usually one or two threads about politics going at the time (mostly USA politics). Now, it's 99% impossible to have any discussion that doesn't turn into a fight. Thank you, Jim. So most Americans don't post. Most Canadians. The Germans and Australians and New Zealanders and Icelanders, an French, and Japanese, and Chinese, and probably other folks I'm forgetting. You see them around? They don't post in BS, they don't post in music. Just gone. So the "best" is when all that was possible - when we were the United Nations of folk - and the "worst" is because it isn't. Probably never will happen again. (But for one, brief, shining moment, there WAS...oh, nevermind.)

Ake, you couldn't understand then, and probably won't ever: it's not what you believe, it's how you presented it. It was how you treated people.
And people don't get "banned" from music discussions because, in most cases, we can't. We probably wouldn't, anyway. Max wants it that way.

...and Spaw, and Kytrad, and WyoWoman, and Bert, and Ernie (LEJ), and Katlaughing (Even though she got on my nerves sometimes) and Max. Mudcat is still Max, but how much have you seen him post?

But shit happens.

But I'd be happy if Max gets rid of BS. Right now, it's mostly a general-purpose battlefield.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 01:05 PM

Apart from ones already mentioned I'll add Rick Fielding. Those phone calls: "Hi Roger" in that soft voice, bothering to thank me for some tape I'd sent him of old British comedies, his technical help to musicians (myself not included)and his sense of humour.
RtS

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Jeri
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 01:41 PM

Agree, Roger. He'd call me and give me speaker-phone guitar lessons, or we'd just chat. I think he called quite a few people. Started a tradition of going to his house to have Christmas with himself, "Duckboots", and an assorted gaggle of guests, most (maybe all) of whom weren't Christians.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 01:41 PM

Best. Meeting mudcatters. I have been lucky enough to attend a few gathers, run a couple and play host to a number of mudcat visitors.

Worst. Losing mudcatters. Too many to mention but Spaw, Dianne Easby and Ralphie would be high up my list.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: beardedbruce
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 01:52 PM

Sonnet 03/11/07       On Mudcat                     MLXV

To absent friends and lost loves let us drink,
Recalling smiles and times that all once shared.
On those no longer near let us now think,
To bring back reasons that for them we cared.
Some are not here, yet still remain, within
The songs and words they left behind. And some
Are in our souls, when hopes or dreams begin:
A part of what each of us have become.
To those apart let us now raise a glass
And take a moment to give thanks for all
That we from others have ourselves received.
The world's a school, and our lives just a class
In playing well with others. Can we call
It more? Are we by our egos deceived?

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: GUEST,akenaton
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 02:13 PM

Very nice indeed Mr Bruce,

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Helen
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 04:55 PM

Yes, Mooh: Spaw. And Gargoyle - part curmudgeon, part learned Mudcateer, with a penchant for small, coloured fonts and pithy comments. Or do I mean "pi$$y"? LOL Hi Steve! And so many others.

Mo the caller, do you use the Make a link ("blue clicky") link below the text box at the bottom to make your links? Easy peasy.


Ake, I agree with what Jeri said. It was not the content of your comments but the manner in saying them. The atmosphere at Mudcat from the beginning was inclusive, open, friendly, accepting of differences, even accepting of differences of opinion, even in political discussions. It's folk life as it is lived, in my experience. We are all different but we can work together.

Aretha Franklin, the late great wonderful woman, said it all: Respect.

I know what it's like to get super angry. Seriously. It has been a lesson I have been learning my whole life, and now at 63 I think I am finally getting on top of it. I have learned to balance the process of getting my message across, i.e. facts, evidence, information, opinion, belief, etc without letting my over-the-top feelings block the chance to have a reasoned, respectful discussion. Typing my responses, and then setting them aside for a later calm, clear, objective, honest self-review before posting is one of the best tricks I know. And aiming for the best outcomes of discussion processes helps, too.

This is my quote for the decade from a Newcastle journalist:

"If we’re to survive this post-truth world we seem to have found ourselves in, it’s time to stand up for evidence-based decision-making, critical thought, facts, rational discussion and transparent, open communication." Joanne McCarthy, Newcastle Herald

This is not the thread to discuss the massive difference which Joanne McCarthy has made to the world in relation to helping to bring a specific issue to light, but I have a lot of respect for her and her opinions. To me, that quote is key to respectful and rational discussion. Talk about the facts, the issues, but don't make it personal, and don't go on the attack.

That's pretty much all I will say about this, in this thread, but believe me it is important for all of us to have our say, but more important to allow differences of opinion without breaking up the party. By "party" I mean getting together with like minded people who have similar interests i.e. music in this case, and having a good time together. For as long as we want, without causing hurt, sadness, grief etc - wherever possible. Like the old Mudcat Tavern threads.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 06:00 PM

Yeah, the phone calls from Rick Fielding. He always seemed to know when I needed cheering up.

And going to Spaw's house unannounced in Bremen, Ohio. He opened the door and, cool as could be, said, "Joe Offer, what are YOU doing here?" He acted like he expected I'd turn up at his doorstep some day. I wish I had been able to do the same to Art Thieme and Jean Ritchie. I got very close to their homes, but didn't have the nerve to drop in.

Oh, and Barry Finn. Gee, I liked Barry. And it was a thrill to go to a singaround at his house in New Hampshire and eat haggis for the first time in my life.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: rich-joy
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 06:38 PM

The Worst : Martin Gibson (and on occasion, Clinton Hammond!) and those current folk who get nasty real quick (no names!).

The Best : just the fact that the amazing Mudcat Cafe Blues and Folk Forum even existed - and still exists! - and the myriad generous, helpful, interested, interesting, global, sharing folks - which gives me hope for the future of this world - Thanks!!

Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Elektra
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 07:42 PM

I still remember the wonder I felt as a young folkie just starting out in Celtic music, when I first discovered the DT on the old Xerox PARC server. Being relatively isolated down here in South Florida, I was amazed to be able to find the lyrics (and even tunes!) to what were then to me, relatively obscure songs. When Max brought the Mudcat online, I discovered a whole new world of people who shared my love for Trad music, and better still, so much of the history behind it!. I have yet to meet any 'Catters - (Hey Max, you still owe me a date!! lol) but in Spirit I have both loved and lost many down through the years. I rarely post for a long time now, but I still check in from time to time. Happy Birthday Mudcat! May you have many more. <3

That Auction was definitely one of my favorite moments. I still miss the chatroom, too, hehe...

XOXOX

*Elektra*

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: gillymor
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 08:06 PM

The best for me was/is all the help I've received looking for lyrics and identifying tunes (Sorcha,RIP, very generously showed me the ropes).
Icing on the cake is the good folks I've gotten to know and Rick Fielding's late night baseball quizzes.
The worst has been mostly corrected and hardly worth mentioning.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Oct 18 - 09:58 PM

I'm impressed with how many couples have met via Mudcat.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Mooh
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 11:28 AM

The outpouring of genuine sympathy and support at times of loss.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 12:21 PM

The best:- the various Mudcat gatherings I have attended and the people I met there.

The worst:- way down near the bottom are people who assume multiple identities or members who log out and come back into the argument as a guest under a different name. But the worst is a team of people sharing a common membership name to cause deliberate confusion.

DC

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 12:43 PM

John, 8:7

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 12:46 PM

To come back on track, one of my best memories was of a scratch ceilidh band comprising of Bill Sables, Sam Pirt, My mate Dave who's handle I can't recall and a number of others playing to a packed hall in Selby, Yorkshire. Sadly, none of the above named post here any more :-(

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: skarpi
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 01:03 PM

2005 and 2010 , in US and Iceland and all the years between , Portaferry N-Ireland , Mudcat Gathering in the US , met all this amazing people , had a change to sing and play , and listen to other´s singing and playing and telling story´s , and I met people that have special place in my heart over there .

2010 the eurogathering and it went on with a style , we had an eruption in one of our glacier " Eyjafjalla Jökull " and they saw some thing with their own eyes that don´t come every day in Europe , but now three glacier´s volcano are rumbling and they are all very big , no worry it happen´s almost all the time :) .

There are many I have not met yet , but working on it .

all the best Skarpi Iceland .

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 01:15 PM

Favourite?
In pre-Mudcat days, I posted a version of Dave Dobbs' "The Magpie" to the Digital Tradition, including some changes I had made as I learned it ... About fifteen years later, two elderly American folkies turned up at a singing session in Galway, Ireland, where I live - and sang MY version! "We got it from a friend of ours who found it on something called 'Mudcat',! As a birdwatcher - that's the only homing magpie I've ever encountered!

Worst moment? Doesn't bear thinking about ...

Regards

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -20 years
From: Charmion
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 03:30 PM

My husband (CET) and I met some of our favourite people on the Cat, which led us to a Memorial Day shanty sing in Portland, Maine, where we met Bat Goddess and Curmudgeon (RIP), Jeri, Kendall, Naemanson, Charley Noble and others too numerous to mention. Later that year (I believe it was 2000), we went to Old Songs, where we met Charlie Baum, who invited us to the Getaway, and the rest is history.

We have benefitted from the hospitality, expertise and just plain niceness of the Mudcat community almost since it began, and it is still crucial to our social life.

Looking forward to the Getaway next week -- Ranger1 will be there for sure, and Janie, and Dani, and Amos, and the great Joe Offer! We can hardly wait.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -22 years
From: beardedbruce
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 04:48 PM

" inclusive, open, friendly, accepting of differences, even accepting of differences of opinion, even in political discussions"


Not in the last few years- ANY departure from the Mandated Liberal Opinion is punished.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -22 years
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 05:22 PM

I guess I would admit that people expressing conservative opinions are not accepted here. I don't see that as particularly fair, but that's a normal, human thing. I don't know how to fix it. Now, let's drop any further mention of political views or differences from this thread. It's not getting us anywhere.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -22 years
From: Helen
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 06:37 PM

Thanks Joe.

No more raking over old ground. And thanks for amending the thread title.

Back to the original thread as envisioned by the OP - hang on a minute! The OP was me! LOL

I did say "best and worst" so I guess I asked for it.

By the way, I tried to donate to Mudcat on Wednesday arvo and had no luck. I'll try again, and I might have to dust off my old Paypal account which I haven't used for years.

Helen

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -22 years
From: Helen
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 06:54 PM

Ok. Donation successful. Hippo birdies Max & Mudcat.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -22 years
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 07:28 PM

Best: just how I started on here, trying to find song lyrics, and doing so very quickly and successfully. Beyond that, genuine camaraderie, meeting other Mudcatters, fun, jokes and those odd "Eureka" moments when you suddenly discover that another Mudcatter under a certain pseudonym wasn't all who you thought he/she was!
Worst: sick and tired to death of all the slagging and name-calling that goes on, threads that started on a sensible and valid music topic being turned into a private battle between 2 or 3 people who have nothing better to do all day than sit in front of their computers waiting for the next post to come in, while they conjure up increasingly competitive insults. The abuse that goes on would not be tolerated on other websites, and might end up in law courts. "Never say online what you would not say to someone face-to-face" is my maxim.
Question: why, on a music site, do we allow ANY political threads? Plenty of other places for people to vent their fury and diatribes.
My 2p.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -22 years
From: j0_77
Date: 04 Oct 18 - 07:46 PM

Happy Beer Day Muddie! you were, are and always will be, the best thing on the Internet.

My biggest thrill, after discovering Netscape a few years earlier, was finding Mudcat. Others have so eloquently visited its extraordinary impact upon popular music that I hardly can find anything unmentioned.

But there is one!

Recently made friends with a millennial female singer / songwriter, Ila Minori. She is both recorded, and with all the right tools to make it today, her fame is growing on Twitter, Facebook, and the rest, as much as it is on Radio and through live shows. She has a great singing voice and a talent for writing nice songs when she wants to.

That is, Mudcat becoming a vector in that new world of digital media, is that new thing!

So Mudcat as the first 'digital' folk networked revolutionary thing that I found, and by far the best, always amazed and never fails to fascinate. I thought then, 1999, and Max later proved it, that there is no longer need for physical things to record and save music. Mudcat Radio, who remembers those awesome days? And yes we did prove with the free apps of the time it could be done! Record and mix at home, stream into a file, then email to the broadcaster.

What a shame Apple, and other big players in the game, took our little experiment and made billions out of it? I don't think even Real Audio ever made much off of their encoder.

Then in the same years MP3 was subject to attempts to monopolize and copyright it! I still own a disc with the original 'encoder' I got from the open software guys and Unix community. At the same time elsewhere in the folk community ABC notation evolves to enable simple tune sharing among the Celtic music zines.

Recalling all the characters who made me howl with laughter, somebody mentioned Spaw, reminds of the great heart and generosity of the Mudcat. It was, and remains IMHO a great foundation of digital American goodness.

My worst moment was losing my password. Yes! I know I should have asked for reset, but with all the to-ing and fro-ing in my life I went for decades not knowing that I could reset it.

As they say to err is human but to lose your password is a banjo player!

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -22 years
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 05 Oct 18 - 06:11 AM

The point I was making, and I think its an important one is that. If you want the company of folksingers, you have to face the fact that folk music people are anodyne - they have opinions. And they express them forcibly.

The biggest joy of Mudcat to me is seeing, people of widely different opinions having dialogue.

People being people - they are not perfect. They are full of prejudice, bitterness from a lifetime of wearing odd shoes, chips on shoulders sizzling from the pan.....but its genuine dialogue.

Its the people who in some parts of the world would be killing each other, but here on planet mudcat - they are talking. Perhaps some people can only manage to swap insults. But it is a genuine meeting of minds.

The best time is when I've made friends and gained respect of people who were initially bristling with hatred. The worse is when people have died with our differences unaccepted and unresolved.

Sometimes, I confess, my fault. But something learned there.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -22 years
From: Vic Smith
Date: 05 Oct 18 - 06:41 AM

Too many good things to make anything more than a long list.
The worst thing by far was the persistant attempts by BNP sympathisers and members to clone and pervert postings of Mudcat members, self included, who opposed their attempts to infiltrate the British folk scene.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -22 years
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Oct 18 - 06:47 AM

Ooooh - I had all but forgotten that Vic. That was a bad one. It was your efforts that helped nail that one so thanks again. As that was a bad moment, your work to help sort it must be mentioned as a good one to counter balance it :-)

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -22 years
From: Vic Smith
Date: 05 Oct 18 - 07:06 AM

Thanks, Dave, I hadn't thought of it from that point of view.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -22 years
From: Jos
Date: 05 Oct 18 - 07:11 AM

Mudcat was a big comfort when there were explosions on the London Underground in (I think) 2015, and London mudcatters were able to let us know they were OK.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -22 years
From: Vic Smith
Date: 05 Oct 18 - 08:01 AM

Jos wrote
"there were explosions on the London Underground in (I think) 2015"

Way out, I'm afraid. I have very good reasons for remembering that they were on 7 July 2005

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -22 years
From: Jos
Date: 05 Oct 18 - 08:13 AM

Of course you are right, Vic. I wasn't quite sure if it was 2005 or possibly 2004 - the '2015' was an inadvertent slip of the finger.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -22 years
From: Jeri
Date: 05 Oct 18 - 11:11 AM

September 11th, 2001.
I got up, made coffee, and got on Mudcat. There was a thread about a fire in a high-rise building that I didn't pay much attention to. But it was getting a LOT of posts, so I looked. Then, I turned on the TV, and was between Mudcat and the TV all day.

After that day, there were opinion threads and song/poem threads, and people talked about their pain and gave comfort. There was kindness and open hearts. It was when the world changed for some, and I'm glad Mudcat was here.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -22 years
From: Helen
Date: 05 Oct 18 - 04:29 PM

World pain and personal pain. Mudcat and Mudcatters have been here for both.

I started a thread in early 2000 when I was smack bang in the middle of the worst workplace bullying situation I have ever been in. I knew I was in deep doo-doo because I couldn't laugh at anything any more, which is pretty dire if you know and understand the Oz way of life. The old Oz wounded soldiers' saying, "It only hurts when I laugh" sums it up. Even in the worst physical pain, they were still laughing and cracking jokes so when asked if they were in pain they would reply, only when I laugh.

I posted a thread called "Help: Lost my sense of humour" and when Mudcat people realised that I was seriously in need of help they jumped right in and before long I was laughing again at all their silly jokes. What a relief!

The situation at work got worse before it got better (I left the job a few months later and went into a financial downward spiral for a while, but then things picked up) but I will never forget how much that thread helped me to survive mentally and emotionally. Thanks everyone. You'll never know how much Mudcat helped me at that stage in my life.

Subject: RE: Best (or worst) Mudcat moments -22 years
From: Cappuccino
Date: 05 Oct 18 - 04:36 PM

Curiously enough, Jeri, I was going to mention September 11th. I too was on Mudcat all day, and even from here in England I felt the mutual support.

My very favourite recollection is being really excited about the set of CDs (Blue Plate Something?)    I was on one track, but never managed to raise the money to buy the set!

And my second favourite was finding the wonderful song Marmite (by McGrath of Harlow, I think).

My worst moment was quite unintentionally offending someone with what was intended to be harmless English humour... and it didn't go down well at all. It seemed safer to change my Mudcat name to clear the air. But that was many years ago, so I should be safe now.

Many thanks to everyone for the help and advice when asked for.

Cap, Norfolk, England.