One of the things that attracted me to this forum was the quality of the people involved and the generally positive, constuctive tone of the posts. There are people of all backgrounds, experiences, resources and talent involved. Some folks are very opinionated but still express their opinions in a civil way. Let's leave the name calling, anger and uncivil behavior to the press and so called pundits. We are better than that!

yup, couldn't agree more.

Bill

Joe, well said indeed.

Sooo....did I miss something? Was there some heat in a thread I didn't read?

Oh! I get it now. Where did THAT come from?

Good will always come out over evil...

Kindness will prevail over meaness...

Positive encouragement will be more powerful than negative critisism...

There is too much good energy on this forum for a post now and again to bring that down...just ignore and stay optimistic...

And, Sonoman...I always enjoy reading your posts...

And, Joe...good words...

And, "It's all good"

Kia Manuia,

Dale

Thanks. I wrote a song a while back called "Let It Slide" that says just that, in its own way. It's impossible to play the guitar, or make love properly, with your hands clenched into fists. Let it go, and learn to love the water just the way it flows....." tom

I was very surprised the posts were not removed and the pc's blocked from future posts.

Stuart

I'm not a fan of censorship. Even as the object of what I thought was unwarranted scorn, I'll presume the person had a bad day. It does tend to poison the well from which we all drink, but I'd forebear banishment unless a pattern emerges. And I think the posts are instructive, in an unintentional way, in that it shows how a virtual community works. And it does work. Stay thy hand, executioner.

Well curiosity got the best of me ,so I searched out the threads to find out what was behind this topic, & I must say that it made me not just a little disheartend to see that someone would take the time to sign on a guitar forum with the seemingly sole purpose of mean spirited faceless hurtful comments.
I am fairly new to Collings ownership ( 8/06 ) & this forum 12 / 06 ), but have found the folks on this site to be friendly & helpfull with no need of defense on mine or any ones else's part , yes there are some who have & had more fine guitars than most music stores out my way, & they sure like to talk about them well more power to them
I only wish I lived out in the Austin area so I could meet some of them in person & hear more of these great stories
I remember as a kid growing up that my fondest memories were the stories of my elders or those with knowledge to
share it is a shame that this is not of more importence today.
I want to thank those who have been helpful to me with replies to my questions Joe Mc , dberch , sonoman , Ed,
to name just a few
thank you
Fred Etheridge

The great thing about the guitar, both here and in the larger world, is what a unifying force it can be: revolutionary, traditional, challenging, and, for all practical purposes in human life, infinite. Check your ego at the door. There is always going to be someone untouchably better than you are, and there's always someone coming along behind you to whom you can pass what you've learned. It's a gift, on loan for a short while. Even guitar ownership, for reasons I need not elaborate upon, is a transitory thing.

I've found two threads in particular - both recent and relatively short - that could be thought of as completely unnecessary, and both involve very new members. It's very unusual context for this forum, which has established a very high bar for ethics and mutual respect in general, and I wish no one ever felt it necessary to post anything so disrespectful, but I personally don't take censorship lightly and wouldn't remove that topic simply because I disagree with it or because it leaves a bad taste in my mouth (which it does). I'm sure I'm not alone when saying that there's a vast amount of information about Collings, their guitars, and guitars in general in the midst of this forum, and also some interesting and eye-opening discussions. But the pursuit of knowledge doesn't always follow your preferred path. Sometimes topics get heated as people disagree and the truth, or the "better" truth, submerges, and we'd hope that in the end we're all friends and better off because of it.

But that doesn't always happen. Sometimes a comment is quite simply rude and contains no valid or pertinent information whatsoever. While following these posts I found a couple that I would consider unnecessary and ONLY offensive. Personally, I'm on the fence about whether or not the archives of the Collings Forum would benefit in any way by keeping them. Fighting censorship is important, but controlling tone when it reaches this level is equally important. Perhaps more so. If the general consensus is that the threads in questions are more offensive than they are informative, action might be necessary.

Please direct me to any topics that are found offensive by sending a PM to my name. Please provide the topic name and in which particular forum it's located.