Ed, give us a little deatil on how to make PayPal work for the contribution. I'll chip in.

Bill

Dr. Bill, Thanks!

You need to first register with Paypal for a personal acount HERE from their front page, it is totally free.

Then follow the instruction HERE for the payment!

Hey Ed,

Just a word of caution, and I don't believe this would ever happen, but it's worth knowing about. I belonged to the Paul Reed Smith fourm, which was similar to but larger than this site (but no where near as well administered ;-)). They went the funding route with PRS and it ultimately closed the site. Because of pressure from dealers, PRS began to place demands on the site regarding who could post and what prices could be discussed. It became a really ugly situation. I understand your need for funding, and I am sure that Bob Collings and the folks down there in Austin really appreciate the significant value this board provides to their marketing effort. This is just a word to the wise about depending too much on a corporate entity with profit motives. Collings is at the mercy of their dealers, and if one of them gets upset by a price quoted on this board then they could assert some influence. That is exactly what happened at the now defunct PRS forum. Right now we (the members) own this site and can freely determine the content.

BTW - if you ever need a spell, or would like some help with this site, I do this stuff for a living and would be glad to contribute some time. I really love my Collings and enjoy the community on this board. It is important that everyone who can contributes to keeping it a place to freely exchange opinions and ideas. Just my .02.

Joe

"There are 10 types of people in the world, those that understand binary and those that don't."

Thanks for your advise Joe! The number one priority of this forum have always been to ensure that it only belongs to us and we can discuss whatever we want to freely.. I also think that this will only benefit the Collings guitars we all loved.

For Collings' contribution, they never requested anything from us and just send the payment as an appreciation for our love toward their guitars!! If they by any chance (which I don't think they will) intend to give any unreasonable restrictions against the liberty of our forum due to the contributions they made, I will probably return the contributions. Folks at Collings have all been extremely GREAT so far and give a lot of support to our forum. (The contribution they made and also the support with the factory tour earlier this year)

Collings Dealers are free to give special offers to our members but I don't think it is appropriate for the Forum to have any direct financial relationship with them.

The number one priority is to keep this forum the way it is now.. We are the one who own this site and should freely determine the content. I think this is the only way to keep this forum running so that everyone can get the most out of it!! I just don't want this to look like another X brand guitar forum... where theres lots of restrictions in posting price etc.

A Forum with such restrictions is not a healthy forum anymore.. Keep up the good work everyone!! I really feel honored being the Administrator of this forum.

Hey Ed,

I had no concern about anything like what happened at the PRS forum happening here, and if I implied that the very generous folks at Collings Guitars had any ulterior motive by helping out with the site it wasn't my intent. It sounds like you have a very clear awareness of the issues that occurred over on the PRS board and are doing a great job protecting our interests. Thanks for all your hard work on this board, and as I said in my last post, I'll be glad to help in any way I can.

Joe

"There are 10 types of people in the world, those that understand binary and those that don't."

Actually Joe, your message reads very much like a "word to the wise" and therefore something to look out for. It's smart to mention what happened to the PRS forum because it COULD happen here. No one is exempt from this type of thing. I was a member of the PRS forum before it slipped away so I'm very familiar with what happened, but more importantly I'm very familiar with the way things operate on THIS forum. The two are quite different. The members are also different. The companies to which each forum was/is dedicated are ENTIRELY different. Collings has never been about profit (not exclusively, certainly not entirely) but PRS is very market-minded. Although they do make a very good guitar, I always had a sense that there was a Big Brother watching over that forum. It became pointless to post any heavy or politically uncorrect topics because you knew that they'd be controlled, or deleted.

This forum feels completely open. The track record has proved this. Give credit to Ed and the members, but what ultimately brings us all together is the Collings company that appeals to all of us. Bill and his staff and everyone here - we're all very passionate about Collings guitars (among many other things) and this forum will remain just that - a forum - never a marketing tool.

If it does, Ed has already said that he'd discontinue acceptance of Collings funding. How's THAT for a great admin?

Ed, I would like to provide a donation but really didn't want to go through the PayPal thing. If you e-mail me your address and name, I'll send you a check. I'm sure you know by now how very much we appreciate your work on this forum. You are a CHAMP!!! Thank you very much! Billy Boy