Folk club regulars know that there are certain things you just don't do - such as opening the floor spots with 'She'll be Coming round the Mountain' or admitting to a liking for Paul Simon's version of 'Scarborough Fair'. One of the golden rules of netiquette - the self-imposed code of conduct stuck to through thick and thin by users of Internet newsgroups - is that you must stick to the topic under discussion. My New Year's resolution is to do just that. So I won't start rambling on about my computing problems, because the last thing you want to read is me wittering on about how my hard drive packed up at the end of December, just as I was about to update my Web site. I'm given to understand by the manufacturers that it was a mechanical fault rather than a virus, which is about as useful as breaking a leg and being told you haven't got flu. All I hope is they don't check the drive and see all those pictures of folk musicians. I'll probably get locked up. Leader of the gang, indeed.
Now, where was I? Oh yes, folk music on the Internet. Fortunately I have been able to hook up to my old drive, so I can still surf around the World Wide Web, where of course I have been able to check out the "Folk On Tap" site. There wasn't enough there last time I looked for me to be able to recommend it yet, but the logos are pretty, so keep an eye on it!
One of the more useful guides to the on-line world I have come across recently is the 1998 "Rough Guide to the Internet". It's only a little book, weighing in at a mere fiver, but it is packed with information on email, newsgroups, mailing lists - very big in the Celtic music field - and the Web. It has a handy glossary, and even a history of the Internet.
There is a section with recommended sites and available newsgroups, which the book acknowledges have a tendency to go out of date, hence the far more useful sections on how to find your way around the Net.
Indeed, it becomes almost indispensable when it gives tips on mending broken Web addresses - those all too frequent occasions when you get a message telling you the file you are trying to open doesn't exist.
They haven't got round to including "Folk On Tap" yet, but they do have "Folk Roots" and "Dirty Linen", so they are on the right track.
If you are producing your own Web site, you may like to hear about one of the more hi-tech gadgets I was playing around with before I was so rudely interrupted by the deus ex machina. This was a flatbed scanner costing less than £100, yet producing pictures of more than adequate quality for publication on Web pages.
The Colorado Direct from Primax comes with software for both picture editing and text recognition. The latter is useful if you've lost all the files you've been working and want to scan back into your computer all the letters and articles you've written over the past year - but I wasn't going to keep going on about that, was I? Seriously, the scanner works more than adequately for personal and even small office use, and as Web publishing doesn't rely on the vagaries of printers to transmit their pictures, you can get very good results once you have worked out the right resolution and brightness to use.
If you are using such a gadget for your site, I would recommend visiting the site yourself to make sure that your pictures aren't too dark or too large - both regular faults on Web pages. Large pictures usually take an annoyingly long time to download, so they don't exactly encourage people to return your site.
One of the best independent Web sites I have had the pleasure to browse lately belongs to Judie Tzuke. Not so off-topic as you might think, as Judie began her career with a spell singing in folk clubs on the London/Surrey borders not so very long ago. Fair enough, the ultimate goal of the site is to sell records, but it is more than possible to visit the site and be informed and entertained, whether it's by the singer's biography and discography or information on up-and-coming gigs and recordings. And all the while your screen is being decorated with reasonably-sized photographs of the lady herself. Recommended.
Things have been pretty quiet on the newsgroup front, with netizens content just to advise each other of upcoming gigs, or checking to make sure Danny Thompson is all right. I wasn't able to access them for a month or so, so I might have missed something spectacular, but I guess everyone these days is busy surfing or even creating their own Web pages. I have been able to make use of them at least to keep subscribers up to date with the lack of progress with my hard drive - had I mentioned that already? - and at least list the guests at the Ram for the coming month.
It still gives me a kick to receive emails from people who have gone to the club having read about this week's gig in a newsgroup posting or on my Web site.
Of course I should be spending more time practising my guitar, perhaps baking the odd cake. But I have this unfortunate urge to keep clicking on things and seeing were they are going to take me. I particularly like checking out other people's links pages, especially when they have included me there. Once you have found a particularly good site of the type you are looking for, the link pages are often the best way to find more.
Roger McGuinn's site - the Folk Den - is rather fun and has been set up to provide a source for learning songs. Yes I know it's better to actually get out of the house once in a while but what the hey, not everyone has easy access to somewhere they can learn songs, so good for him. And for goodness sake - it's Roger McGuinn!
Now, before I start practising my guitar, perhaps I'll just go to the Folk Den and see if he's got the words there to 'Banks of the Bann'. If not I can always try the Digital Tradition.