Here is just a small selection of messages left when the closure of my Yamaha Personal Keyboard Owner (YPKO) website was announced:

It was with more than a little sadness that I heard from James Woodcock that he is to close the YPKO website. Cath and I would like to express our sincere thanks to James for all the help he has given with our own website [The Yamaha Club website] and, of course, for providing such a valuable resource that we’ve all been fortunate to share. James’ has several, quite understandable, reasons for winding up the Yamaha Personal Keyboard Owner website.
Glyn Madden – The Yamaha Club Magazine

Dear James, This is a massive shock – you have created such a wonderful community with your website and it has been so exciting to visit on a daily basis and particularly to receive such valuable advice from so many people and giving us the opportunity to perform our music to one another. I wish there could have been a way to make it viable for you to continue, this is going to be a huge loss to us all. So, thank you so much for your time and the immense pleasure you have given with YPKO and I hope you can persuade your friends to provide similar content as your ideas for each section have been brilliant. Good luck with everything and I wish you a very successful future with your own website.
Susie Drage

I am sorry to hear that the site will be closing. I found it very helpful and was enlightened by many comments from the users. Good luck and all the best on your next endeavour – and thanks for the time and effort you have put into this. We will all miss it I am sure.
jkruger

I too, am very sorry to hear about the closing of this wonderful Forum! I want to thank you for all the hard work, time & effort you have put into this & wish you the best of luck for the future.
Gloria Hanson

James, it’s with a mix of sadness and great gratitude that we evaluate this news. All the best in your future endeavours! Many of us “across the pond” have been greatly helped by your excellent site and many friendships have resulted. You’ve made history, and your shoes will be hard to fill. Many, many thanks
Bob

James, I’ve known you for many years, and the venture’s you go down have been successful every time – YPKO was no different. I may not have been an avid poster or reader – But every now and then I would visit this site and notice how fruitful the community was, and how successful you had made this site.
Michael Valentine

Sorry to hear the news, but time marches on, and our needs change with time. Knowing your interest in Yamaha Keyboards, I’m sure your decision was not taken lightly, and Family and Home must always come first. So as with all other forum members, I must thank you for your kindness and attentiveness to others problems in the past. As an octogenarian whose digits are not as nimble as I would like. The pleasure and joy of listening to the many recorded offerings by the talented members, will also be surely missed. Thanks to You and All Members for my past listening pleasures. Best Wishes James for your Future pursuits.
Kenzel

I have only been a member for a few months as I only purchased an EL60 keyboard last year and somehow I found your site. It has been an emence help to me to get started and I understand the time and effort one needs to put in to keep these type of sites working to the fullest, yours is no exception and what a fine effort you have done. Your site will be greatly missed no only by myself but by many, many more.
Chris Rivette

Sad news – but I understand and you have my full support. I’d like to thank you for all the good work and huge efforts, and I wish you all the best of success , good health and happiness. Hope we will be in touch one way or another. I will also miss many of the members but hope to find them again on the new site. I remember you’re not too fond of getting your picture as achievement award on the cover of Time Magazine – I guess I have to come-up with another idea :-)
Roland W

Sad to hear the news…. it is such a great site. I truly thank you for all your hard work and time, your site was greatly appreciated by many, many folks. Hope something half as good comes along to fill the void. Take care and good luck in all your future adventures.
rogerc

Unlike some of those above who said they didn’t visit often enough, YPKO was a several stops a day site for me. It has become a sizable part of my daily life, and so it always shall be, for I will keep the knowledge and the memories with me always. I thank James and ALL the members for that. And so I say “have a good life” to you all. I am sure our paths will cross in the future on the other forums, but I am sure there will never be another – – – – with the likes of YPKO.
Ted Nicoson

Yes, it is a shock — I depended on this site so much. Feel like I lost a good friend.
Nancy Marks

I join with everyone in wishing you all the very best and know that any venture you take up in the future will be a resounding success, as the forum has been. The almost daily checking in to ‘mingle’ with all our forum members will be a very difficult void to fill. Good luck in all you do, and many thanks for sharing so much of your time and talent with us.
Thomas

My favorite place on all the web and now it will disappear! Oh well, I sure appreciate all the hours of fun and interest I had reading and writing posts here. I hate to see it end, but I thank you so much for all that you did for members all over the world. Take care, James, and best wishes!
Tom G

Hi James, I, like many others am also very saddened to read that you are closing the site, although i registered in March 2008 I never even got around to introducing myself, but, since then, I have really enjoyed visiting the site & reading many of the posts. As an Electronics engineer working with & on Yamaha Keyboards, I found this site an invaluable mine of information for Yamaha enthusiasts, & others for that matter, I shall miss it very much & echo the sentiments of every one else, Good luck and very best wishes in every thing you do in the future.
DigiTronic

Hi James – how sad I felt to read this news of you closing the forum. It has been a godsend to me and I am sure many others members. It is people like you who share your time and effort that makes life easier for us. I feel that I am losing a friend that I have yet to meet. Good luck in whatever you do. Personal time is precious.
missjaybee

Dear James, Yes, I am very very saddened to have read your announcement when I logged on at 7.30 p.m today. I fully understand your major reason, how time consuming running such an established website/forum like this. I’ve had similar experience on a much smaller scale and it does take up so much time and energy, not to mention expense. In the few years I have a been a member of YPKO, I have made a new family, learned a lot more about the Yamaha Tyros 3 and 4 and many other topics from many of the brilliant members contributions, including your own views. I could go on but will leave room for other member’s posts as I am certain you will be inundated with messages. I do hope many of us can keep in touch through other forums. May I take this opportunity in expressing my sincere ‘thanks’, and I do mean it, for all the efforts you have put into this fantastic forum and I wish you, and your family every happiness for the future. All the best – and thank you again James
Jimmy

Hi there James,I used to be a regular member on here prior to selling my Yamaha Tyros2,all I can say is I understand your reasons and it was obvious when I was on the site how much time and effort you put into running the site. It was the BEST site for Yamaha owners and a credit to your goodself and I wish you all the best for the future.
Chris

Shock is not the word, lot of feelings at this moment, But thank you so much, fore all the good time, in this forum us you administrated so well. Always a good feeling going on your side. May you and yours have a very good time to come. Thank you again for the way you are.
Hans E

May I also add a message of congratulations to James for the time, effort, staying power, tolerance, empathy, sincerity and committment to YPKO and it’s members since it launched. I have enjoyed the site immensly and found it also a great way to share our music to the world. You will be missed James however nothing lasts forever and things move on. GOOD LUCK in all your future endeavours. Take a massive pat on the back, take a bow and exit stage left James, you’re a star!Steve Selwood

A very big thank you from me- Was so happy to find your site a couple years ago & have been so impressed by the format and content and have made many music friends on here. I have no doubt that this was so very much hard work with minimal lucrative return- so I sincerely wish you the best of times and financial success in whatever you take on next.
Judy

So sorry to hear this news, but thanks James for all your hard work over many years.
Its a tribute to you that Yamaha Club joined forces with your website and together you created a brilliant resource and communication service for Yamaha enthusiasts. I have received a lot of specific help from many members, as well as indirectly by simply reading the wide ranging variety of posts.
Terry

I don’t think I can really find words to add to what everyone has already said so far, except to offer my thanks for the work you have put in to make this site the BEST THERE IS. I know you will feel great sadness in closing the site yet feel a sense of relief that some of your time will once again become your own. For all my working life I devoted ALL my spare time to work, many thousands of hours of unpaid work because I thought it to be the right thing. I always put work before my family, it was not until I actually retired that I realised how precious life with the family really is.
One final point, I have never found any forum to be as successful as yours, which must make you very proud and I know the memories of your achievement will always stay with you and indeed all the members.
Bill

So sorry to read that the forum is closing, but thank you James for making it possible for me to make so many friends with the same interests, and all the help that I have been given by those same friends, all which would not have been possible without the great forum which you created.
Geoff

James –

Thank you so much for your generous service to this community. By providing a transition period and assuring us that our personal data will not be shared you only confirm what we already know, that you are a kind and responsible administrator as well as a friend to those you have served so long and so well. I hope that, after a well-deserved respite, you will find it possible to return to the fray, perhaps in a less demanding role, so we may once again enjoy your gifts and your company. The Forum alone would be a most welcome gathering spot for the YPKO membership.
J. True

What sad news – the end of what has become our second family. YPKO has become easily the best site of it’s kind on the net bar none. Taken to the top by all your hard work and enthusiasm – for which we thank and applaud you. Thanks also for the many friends we have made through the medium of the Forum.
Vic & Jill

James – Thank you for all the time and dedication you have given to this wonderful site. I have recently been working thru the excellent 3 DVD tutorials in which you collaborated with Glyn Madden and look forward to any future ones as well. I wish you joy in your upcoming new life venture.
Maxine

Thank you James for your immense contribution to music generally and to all of us Yamaha users, both beginners (like me) and the experienced. May I offer you all the very best for your future endeavours. Again, very many thanks for a job well done.
Arthur

Dear James, I think this will be the longest thread on your forum because, there is no doubt, this has been the greatest keyboard site ever and we will all be sad to see it end. I fully understand your decision and wish you every success and hapiness in the future. Although we have never met I feel you are a friend like many of the contributors on the forum.
Graham

YPKO is one of the most active forums dedicated to PSR/Tyros. It benefited from members with close association with Yamaha, and has some of the very best arranger experts on the net. It never had the user conflicts that have undermined other forums. In most every way, I can only give it the highest rating.
Michael

Hi James, GOBSMACKED, sorry to shout, but that is how I feel this morning, when I woke up to see the news, It is a big shock, but you are breaking us in gently, who would have thought that six years ago when i sent you some back copies of the Yamaha Club Magazine and you met Glyn, that this site would grow to be the MOST successful site for Yamaha keyboard owners, I have met some lovely people one of which is yourself, I realise this must be very time consuming and as the members increase so does the hard work, I wish you every success for the future, and hope that the next news i hear will be of your wedding ( now that is good news). I also wish your successor every good wish, he has a hard act to follow.
Pamela

At my age, you become adjusted to good friends ‘moving on’, but the sadness lingers. You will be missed greatly for the magnificent dedication and unstinting effort that you have sustained over the past few years, to ensure that Yamaha Personal Keyboard Owner is the best of it’s kind. Under your ‘baton’, this community of keyboard devotees has become the most helpful, and friendly ‘musical group’, on the net. The wealth of talent and information, on the site is almost an addictive experience. I do hope you are mentoring your successor, to enable the habituated to continue to enjoy this sensation. Alas, circumstances prevented me from continuing in my addiction, many months ago, but I have popped in for a fix, occasionally. Like the others, I also hope a new venue with old friends may emerge. Many thanks for your enthusiastic labours and I wish you all success for the future.
Tony

Thank you so very much for providing such a wonderful place where we all could meet and share our music and our information. You have been totally professional and wonderfully accommodating from the very beginning. May your new endeavors be even more successful than this terrific forum.
Ian

I can only second what everyone else has said, it is the one website and forum that if I had a problem (and I had many) I could come and guarantee that there would be many members only too eager to help and to all those I say a heartfelt thank you. But the biggest thanks must go to James whose has run the friendliest and most professional website and forum that I haveever visited. Thank you James and all the very best for the future.
Pifco

James, thanks for having made YPKO such a uniquely wonderful place for all of us from all around the world to meet, discuss, support, share, and help each other in our shared passion for Yamaha arranger keyboards. I’ve enjoyed our Skype chats about not only Yamaha arrangers but other computer/game related topics as well. Though it’s very disappointing to learn that YPKO is closing, here’s wishing you All the best in whatever future endeavor(s) you embark on.
Scott Yee

Like many users of this informative, enjoyable, and helpful site it is sad to see it end. I personally have benefited enormously in finding the answers to many questions, and from very friendly and knowledgeable people. I would like to say thank you to all for the encouragement and enthusiasm you have shown. James you have done a fantastic job. THANK YOU.
Brian