Eric, you're a pro and a human being. I salute you.

sparky

I missed the whole H&D brouhaha. Can anyone fill me in on the OP's issues with the guitar. As an unabashed H&D fan, I am curious.

I wouldn't mind seeing the thread myself.

The following is posted at the foot of every page. It's a fairly straight-forward, simple concept:

quote:

This is an independent website created by a group of Collings Guitar owners, and not part of Collings Guitars. The statements and opinions expressed in the Collings Guitar Forum are solely those of the individuals posting the same and are not those of Collings Guitars, the forum's administrators, moderators and its supporters, financial or otherwise, or its members, guests or other contributors.

Elambo, I agree with redavide. Whether or not the original post, viewed in a vacuum, is considered "out of line", the thread in its totality actually imparts quite a bit of useful information. If anything, the numerouos replies debunked the original post's faulty premise, and that is educational and useful information.

Over the years I've enjoyed this forum. I'm a big Collings fan. Although I don't post much, I'd say I check and catch up on the posts several times a week. It's entertaining and informative. Unfortunately it also feeds my obsession as well but it's a lot of fun!
I've also met some really nice people who are members of this forum through a few of the transactions I've been involved with. It’s a nice place.

Elambo-I really appreciate that you take the time and energy to moderate here on the Collings Forum and from my humble perspective you do a great job at it. However I must say I was miffed at the deletion of the "DON'T BUY HUSS & DALTON" thread.

quote:

he also didn't deserve to be burned at the stake.

From what I read, no one was "burned at the stake"... I really hope that my post was not interpreted as that.

I really believe in giving people a lot of leeway to offer varying views. I’m for freedom of speech and totally against the “thought police”… From what I read (and admittedly I may have missed something that was over-the-top or harsh), but to me the criticism the original poster received for using the subject heading "DON'T BUY HUSS & DALTON"...was totally justified.

When one posts on a public forum in all caps “DON’T BUY…” fill in the blank….he’s making a bold statement. I understand the poster was frustrated but that’s serious business for whomever is after the “DON”T BUY”… I think we all get that.

Again, from what I read the criticism the poster received was justified. I was actually surprised that more people didn’t chime in at the inappropriateness of the subject heading.

Maybe the subject heading could have been modified and the rest of the post kept alive, I don’t know. But deleting the post seemed to go against the spirit of what this forum is all about and it surprised and disappointed me. I respectfully disagree with the way this was handled.

Believe me I’d much rather talk, comment and read about whether the varnish Collings are really worth the extra doe… No, no please no…just kidding.

It’s still early in the morning and I know I haven’t been very articulate with my points but I said my piece and I think most will understand where I’m coming from. Thanks again Elambo and everyone.

dave

quote:

Originally posted by redavide:
I wouldn't mind seeing the thread myself.

The following is posted at the foot of every page. It's a fairly straight-forward, simple concept:

quote:

This is an independent website created by a group of Collings Guitar owners, and not part of Collings Guitars. The statements and opinions expressed in the Collings Guitar Forum are solely those of the individuals posting the same and are not those of Collings Guitars, the forum's administrators, moderators and its supporters, financial or otherwise, or its members, guests or other contributors.

Are you insinuating that I don't understand the straight-forward, simple concept of this forum? Notice right above the source of your quote, in the TOS -- from it:

"We reserve the right to delete any message for any or no reason whatsoever. You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages. "

The thread was abused by its contributors (NOT so much the OP) some of which are popular posters here. I was very unhappy about the course of that thread and deleted it. There was no reason to believe that it would ever shape up. Sorry, but someone peed in the pool and all the water had to go.

quote:

Originally posted by Acoustic Dave:
From what I read (and admittedly I may have missed something that was over-the-top or harsh), but to me the criticism the original poster received for using the subject heading "DON'T BUY HUSS & DALTON"...was totally justified.

I'm really struggling with this comment.

Some responses were anything but justifiable, and they had nothing to do with the heading.

If you think about this from both angles you'll see that my actions were to PROTECT free speech.

Elambo-

First off, I acknowledge that by deleting the post you were simply doing what you thought was the right thing to do. I appreciate that.

Also, I see how you were dealing with both sides of the coin when taking this action as well although I still don’t agree with the action.

I stand by my words both in my original post and in this new topic.

Frankly, I don't understand what you're struggling with about what I wrote. The OP made an extremely provocative statement when he posted "DON'T BUY HUSS & DALTON"...the responses that I read about the post heading were measured and appropriate...including mine.

I don't see how deleting this post did anything to protect freedom of speech.

Thanks.

dave

There has been a lot of this stuff lately. Perhaps the economy, etc, has some people on edge and normal decorum is on vacation. In any case someone has to step in and decide when things may be crossing the line. That is the moderators job. Trying to please everyone ends up pleasing no one. As has occured in the past some threads just continue to escalate in a negative direction with each additional post, so better sooner ended than later, at least IMO.
Rick

Perhaps we could have a "frozen threads" section where one could go to see what sorts of interchanges have violated community standards. Think of it as taxidermy. If it's technically possible, the names of the participants could be deleted to protect the innocent, and the less than innocent. Lastly, regarding varnish: I don't know if it's worth the doe, but it sure costs a herd of bucks. This ain't constitutional law, my friends; it's a series of discussions about guitars and issues that arise from their purchase, sale, use, misused, abuse, and assorted refuse.

Elambo wrote:

quote:

Are you insinuating that I don't understand the straight-forward, simple concept of this forum?

Elambo, of course I was insinuating no such thing -- and I'm surprised that you would insinuate that I would make such an insinuation. In fact, I believe the opposite --I think that you understand the concept very well.

I believe that the language I cited is self-explanatory and I agree with it 100%.

You further wrote:

quote:

"We reserve the right to delete any message for any or no reason whatsoever . . .

I don't believe that the right to delete a message for "any or no reason whatsoever" is in any way even remotely connected with protecting free speech or promoting a free and open forum. In my opinion, that kind of inherently unfair and aggressive language is much, much worse than "Don't Buy Huss and Dalton" posted by a lone member who's disappointed with his new guitar.

In any case, it's difficult for me to say any thing more about that thread because I never got the chance to read it.

quote:

The thread in its totality actually imparts quite a bit of useful information.

Tom, I don't feel that the information was all that useful, other than the explanation Jim Merrill gave about bad batches of wood. I think that the direction it was starting to take, outweighed the rest. If anything, I thought Elambo showed patience in trying to give it a chance to turn around a bit.
I am noticing a pattern of disrespect coming mostly from people who are first time posters, or have only several postings.
I understand about freedom of speech and being frustrated and angry, but I think we also need to try to respect each other in how we act and speak.

I respect you as a knowledgable person and a positive contributing member of this forum.