Six and a half years of Collings.net

[Forum Admin]

I have not posted an update the past two years so it is long overdue.

It has been enjoyable hosting this site for this time. I and I am sure the rest of you had hoped for a larger following and interaction on the site. Unfortunately, it has not dwindled even more.

This brings up the question of how relevant this site is in the year 2025 (no, not 2525, that was another song). These days social media rules. They get the views and the revenue that generates for them. It is big business. Not much room for us privately funded independent pages.

The cost has been over $2,000 with hosting, domain name, managed tech service updates, and SSL certificates. Our total revenue since 2018 has been $125. The net loss was nearly $1,900. We are not Facebook. Sigh. I am not bellyaching or looking for contributions. I knew the mission when I undertook it back in 2018. I am just conveying the actual numbers.

Today, the question is shall we continue or close up shop? I am not sure the utility of the site any longer since social media rules the big boy world these day.

Then there is the spam that I deal with DAILY. Sometimes I miss one but each day, the false registrations have to be approved or disapproved by me. The ratio of what I believe to be real people and the spammer is around 1 in 20. The spammers are getting more clever with their registration names agreeing with their email addresses so it has become ever more challenging to to figure out if it is a real person or an impersonator. It gets old.

So I open the thread to discussion about a path forward or to an orchestrated end to the site. What say all of you?

Best,

Frank Sanns

[remco]

Hello,
I'm probably not the best person to answer this question because my perspective is very different from yours...France.
I know Silly is one of us, but it's too few across the Atlantic.
As a fan of the brand, this will cut my connection to you, and I'm sorry about that.
Rémi

[Forum Admin]

Dear Rémi,

Thank you for your input. Just hearing your response is enough for me to keep this going longer. If it is enough to keep some people connected and a place to discuss the brand then I shall stay at it. I am just not one to spin my wheels unnecessarily.

Best,

Frank

[uponamouse]

Thank you for posting this info, Frank.
I'm most sorry that the bulk of the work is fighting spam and bots. Sigh.
Within my spheres of interest (guitar, mtn. bikes), all forums are dwindling in activity. I like the idea of this existing as a resource, but maybe that's less necessary these days?

[uponamouse]

Despite the lack of forum "activity," this young thread already tops 1,000 views? Bots, bots, everywhere...

[Forum Admin]

Exactly. Tons of AI bots now trying to soak up information so it can parrot it back to its users. We are a resource to the AI.

Which brings up the other problem that may lead to the demise of the site. There are hundreds to as many as over 3,000 parses of this site at times. This is a 5 minute average slice but it is beginning to overload both my hosting plan as well as the ability of phpBB platform which the site is built on.

I believe the cap is not far off. At that point the site will take minutes to load and at some point not at all. I have some options but it gets more and more complex, expensive, and most importantly time intensive.

FYI the number of "guests" at any 5 minute interval can be see at the bottom of the main forum page. These are the AI that are parsing the site.

[zerb]

Well, I would hate to see the site fade away! I am a Collings owner, but very infrequent poster, and I truly appreciate that the site exists. I check it every day for new posts, and I am sad to see it dwindling as it has. Given that my participation costs me nothing but a couple of minutes out of my day, I can't encourage you to keep it up if it is a drain on your time and resources. But I, for one, would miss it! Could you accept contributions of some sort?

[Forum Admin]

I appreciate the feedback. It is at least reassuring to know that real people are still on the site. It is so infrequently used that I started feeling like it was becoming extinct hence this thread.

Contributions to running the site can be made to admin@collingsforum.net and are greatly appreciated. They have been very sparse and far between in the past.

The bigger issue is daily filtering of spam and keeping the database and phpBB versions current and compatible. Another person to moderate would not really help that issue. Seems I have grandfathered myself into this job as I know all of the inner workings to keep things running smoothly.

I am good with it for another couple of years and reevaluate then if the site still has utility. For now, it is one foot in front of the other. Play on!

[Forum Admin]

A gracious thanks to Zerb for a very generous contribution to the site. Thank you from all of us.

Frank

[zerb]

You are welcome! I hope we are moving towards a golden age for the forum.