In Case You Missed It

Forum Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2018 12:22 am

In Case You Missed It

Post: # 5794Post Forum Admin
Tue Oct 11, 2022 11:27 pm

It is our four year anniversary here with this "new" forum! Congrats everybody!

Each year at this time, I like to give an administrative update on the site so everybody knows where we are.

We went from a great old forum to nothingness and limbo just under 5 years ago. It was a difficult time with no clear direction. As you all know our past moderator (elambo) and I tried to get the old site up to no avail. It was heavy on my mind because I am usually a man of action. It was a dilemma of stepping on toes of the past owner or letting the Collings Forum be gone forever.

Then a medical event brought me on the brink of not surviving. For some reason I was just minutes from the hospital when my first symptoms started. Things escalated very quickly from there as right after arriving at the ER, I went into cardiac arrest. I was in and out of consciousness during CPR and several shocks to save my life from a widow maker heart attack. I was gone from the earth and then back again and then gone again and gone and gone and then back but barely.

I do not know why but I was given another opportunity to continue my work in this physical world. During the first days back home on a very long recovery path (all good now), this site was one of the many items that lay unresolved on my to do list; a list which was nearly exclusively for others.

In the days before I was even strong enough to start any sort of meaningful physical therapy, I sat with my laptop and designed and made the structure of this site. I prepaid the domain and hosting for five years forward and gave backups to multiple people just in case I would not make through recovery. Thanks to God that I am still here.

That is the back story of this forum and am a grateful for all of you for coming.

Since then I have added an SSL certificate to the site and have additional paid hosting assistance to keep the site and database current. I want to thank the two members this past year for contributing to this. The total contributed was $60 and was greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Participation on the site this past year has not been as much as the previous year. People are still signing up and posting but there is not as much interaction these days. I am not sure if we are still relevant in the fast pace world and instant gratification that social media offers.

Gone are also the conflicts that had people rushing to the old site for their daily entertainment. I have added another forum to discuss anything else to allow for a little bit of controversy but the snow cone post was a bust. lol.

So we are good for at least another year then I think we should have a consensus on our direction forward. We have plenty of time to think on that.

Don't put things off and know that you can accomplish anything that you want no matter how far off or difficult it may appear. You can do it!

Thanks to all and have a healthy, happy, and prosperous year!

Frank Sanns

uponamouse
Posts: 64
Joined: Sat Jun 27, 2020 5:39 pm
Real Name: Tom N

Re: In Case You Missed It

Post: # 5797Post uponamouse
Thu Oct 13, 2022 3:49 am

Thank you, Frank, for all that you have done to create this forum. It has been a bit quiet lately, but who knows?

More essentially, I wish you good health.

Best regards,

Tom
Cheers, Tom

Forum Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2018 12:22 am

Re: In Case You Missed It

Post: # 5800Post Forum Admin
Thu Oct 13, 2022 1:44 pm

Thank you Tom,

I am pretty much back to normal these days and the prognosis is good so let's hope it was just a one time event. Still, our ages keep piling up. I am now 66 but was 21 just a couple of years ago, or so it seems.

As for the forum, I view it as positive for the time. It may bounce back into relevance or fade into the wind. Destiny and outcomes kind of do whatever they are going to do. We can give little nudges to the universe but not much more.

Best,

Frank

markT
Posts: 125
Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2018 3:10 pm
Location: West Palm Beach

Re: In Case You Missed It

Post: # 5827Post markT
Thu Oct 27, 2022 10:12 am

Wow Frank....I had no idea what you were going through while trying to get the old forum back/creating this one.
And yes, God still has you here for a reason.
I have not been around here as much this past year for a variety of reasons. But I will do better. I'd hate for it to fade away.
Thanks for what you do and what you have done.
Mark

Eric Jones
Posts: 108
Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2018 12:05 am

Re: In Case You Missed It

Post: # 5830Post Eric Jones
Thu Oct 27, 2022 11:37 pm

Frank,

Yes, thanks for what you’ve done here. And thanks for the back story. Glad you’re ticking along well now. I almost contributed to the snow cone thread but didn’t want to be too controversial.

Maybe we’ve gotten old and bored with each other. Maybe no one’s playing guitar any more. I know I haven’t been playing as much. (Or maybe everyone is playing guitar and not reading forums.) There hasn’t been as much new stuff coming out of Austin recently to cause a buzz. But the past few years have been difficult on everyone. And with such a thorough offering of instruments available, it’s harder to come up with new offerings. And having produced nearly 33,000 acoustic guitars, maybe most of it’s been done before. I know I’ve bought more Collings instruments than I can play in a lifetime. The dealer network looks considerably different now than it did just a few years ago. Maybe the Facebook pages are more popular. I haven’t seen them in years. They’re certainly convenient, but that format doesn’t lend itself to organized information. Those are just some disjointed thoughts about our current condition.

I still check in here regularly. And I also enjoy visiting Collings own Facebook page where they usually post some eye candy daily.

Frank Sanns
Posts: 147
Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2018 5:38 pm
Real Name: Frank Sanns
Location: Pittsburgh

Re: In Case You Missed It

Post: # 5831Post Frank Sanns
Fri Oct 28, 2022 3:06 am

Thanks Mark. Thanks Eric.

Maybe some of the lack of activity on the forum was my letting the forum initialize and propagate itself rather than treating it like a new site. My snow cone thread was a bit of a tongue in cheek attempt to just getting some interaction going. At least some of you got humor from it.

I am thinking some eye candy here might be a good thing. Over the next couple of days I will try to get some threads started with some instruments. Get your photos ready of your new and old Collings gems!

Frank

Red Oak
Posts: 433
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2021 4:00 am

Re: In Case You Missed It

Post: # 5833Post Red Oak
Sat Oct 29, 2022 3:11 am

Forum Admin wrote: Tue Oct 11, 2022 11:27 pm It is our four year anniversary here with this "new" forum! Congrats everybody!

Each year at this time, I like to give an administrative update on the site so everybody knows where we are.

We went from a great old forum to nothingness and limbo just under 5 years ago. It was a difficult time with no clear direction. As you all know our past moderator (elambo) and I tried to get the old site up to no avail. It was heavy on my mind because I am usually a man of action. It was a dilemma of stepping on toes of the past owner or letting the Collings Forum be gone forever.

Then a medical event brought me on the brink of not surviving. For some reason I was just minutes from the hospital when my first symptoms started. Things escalated very quickly from there as right after arriving at the ER, I went into cardiac arrest. I was in and out of consciousness during CPR and several shocks to save my life from a widow maker heart attack. I was gone from the earth and then back again and then gone again and gone and gone and then back but barely.

I do not know why but I was given another opportunity to continue my work in this physical world. During the first days back home on a very long recovery path (all good now), this site was one of the many items that lay unresolved on my to do list; a list which was nearly exclusively for others.

In the days before I was even strong enough to start any sort of meaningful physical therapy, I sat with my laptop and designed and made the structure of this site. I prepaid the domain and hosting for five years forward and gave backups to multiple people just in case I would not make through recovery. Thanks to God that I am still here.

That is the back story of this forum and am a grateful for all of you for coming.

Since then I have added an SSL certificate to the site and have additional paid hosting assistance to keep the site and database current. I want to thank the two members this past year for contributing to this. The total contributed was $60 and was greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Participation on the site this past year has not been as much as the previous year. People are still signing up and posting but there is not as much interaction these days. I am not sure if we are still relevant in the fast pace world and instant gratification that social media offers.

Gone are also the conflicts that had people rushing to the old site for their daily entertainment. I have added another forum to discuss anything else to allow for a little bit of controversy but the snow cone post was a bust. lol.

So we are good for at least another year then I think we should have a consensus on our direction forward. We have plenty of time to think on that.

Don't put things off and know that you can accomplish anything that you want no matter how far off or difficult it may appear. You can do it!

Thanks to all and have a healthy, happy, and prosperous year!

Frank Sanns
Frank- thank you for sharing your harrowing episode with us, A couple of months ago I went through a somewhat similar health event so I can appreciate your journey. It’s remarkable and greatly appreciated the work and dedication you provide to those of us who enjoy this site.
Wishing you only good health .

pto
Posts: 160
Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2018 3:40 am

Re: In Case You Missed It

Post: # 5846Post pto
Wed Nov 02, 2022 7:37 pm

Wow Frank, amazing story. thank you for everything... I had been thinking recently about posting something here and on the also-"new" SCGC board about the observation that both boards disappeared at about the same time, and then likewise reappeared, with the same results: far fewer participants, and way less activity. my thinking had been to post the question, "why do you think this is?"

SO MUCH incredible technical information was lost from original fora. On the SCGC board, wonderful detailed information from people like my buddies Dan Roberts and Steve Swan. On the Collings forum, even more was lost. priceless long DETAILED back-and-forths, between experts like, say, Jim Merrill, John Griffin and (i think it was) John Arnold. Plus so much knowledge from us regular members.

My take: I thought the reason was a combination of sadness and hopelessness that the rich history was gone; and of what you, Frank, wondered above, " I am not sure if we are still relevant in the fast pace world and instant gratification that social media offers." Of course, we may be just too busy playing our instruments, or having kids or grand kids.

for me, it's the disappointment of losing the data, mixed with your idea in equal measure.

And, as far as the Collings forum is considered, I can't discount that Bill, whom Steve called "the eternal 18-year-old" is physically gone from this world. That combination of striving for perfection and craziness pervaded all. the perfection is still there, but not the craziness of father Bill.

Frank Sanns
Posts: 147
Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2018 5:38 pm
Real Name: Frank Sanns
Location: Pittsburgh

Re: In Case You Missed It

Post: # 5852Post Frank Sanns
Sat Nov 05, 2022 2:55 am

Red Oak,

Glad you made it through your health episode. It seems many of us here are at that age that rather serious things can start to go haywire. I wish everybody good health. Enjoy it while you have it because for all of us, one day it will be gone. Let that music ring!

PTO,

Thank you too for the kind words.

There is so much good discussion lost from the old forum. I think it was a time of discovery and discussion. Bill Collings was the new kid on the block. His exuberant and innovative methods brought people to the forum. Great people as you stated. They came to share, discuss, and have alternative view points. It was the Golden Era of Collings.

While that sill exists, minus Bill of course, it is more established now and variations on the models now seems rather endless. I think some of the life cycle of the forum tracks the maturing of the brand and the models. It is much tougher to make a big splash today. To be honest, I still prefer some of those original models minus a small number of new variations. In there though are hand made cases, electrics and many other excitement builders. It has been a good ride and we are not off yet!

I was not aware that the Santa Cruz forum went down around the same time. That is interesting. I know the FB pages are doing well but my guess is that they will have a life cycle too. So many things are ephemeral these days. Really hard to predict trends and people's evolving habits. I like to think, as you have said, that it is playing music and spending time with grand kids (none here unfortunately). Feel free to post a thread about all of it and see what others say. Curious minds want to know!

Best to all,

Frank

pto
Posts: 160
Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2018 3:40 am

Re: In Case You Missed It

Post: # 5857Post pto
Tue Nov 08, 2022 2:51 am

hey, Frank - forgot to mention you in the list of great information providers on the old forum. all your technical stuff, particularly. dang!

and, this of yours may be the overwhelming reason... "I think some of the life cycle of the forum tracks the maturing of the brand and the models. It is much tougher to make a big splash today. " great point.

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