[macpappy]

I joined CS the summer of 2007 and immediately felt welcome and comfortable with the forum. I was also one of the members who said we should all give it a chance after the change was announced. As someone who didn't have the time and effort invested in CS that some members did, I was willing to wait and see what the new management would do to the site.

The biggest changes I saw after Caputo became the owner was not anything he did immediately but the negativity that came out of a number of the old time CS members who did not like the fact that change was occurring and the vibe I got from some members who moved over from other forums. That changed the CS environment and when I was provided the information about the Asylum I joined.

Now that the official change has been made to Puff.com, I would say that many of the predictions made about the other site have come true or coming close to happening. That makes me glad to have the Asylum to visit.

But I am not giving up my membership at the other site. Why? Because it may not be the same old CS and I may not personally like everything that has happened over there, but it can still be another source of information about cigars and the world in general. Hey! I don't like everything in Cigar Aficianado. I don't like everything about Cigar magazine. But I still read them.

And I have noticed that there are quite a few of us who are still participating in discussions over there - at least for now. The number of times I visit the other site is decreasing and I think many of you are doing the same. That will mean less traffic for the other site in the short term, but then those numbers will bounce up and down as other "clubhouses" are brought on line so I would guess that losing a few hundred active members will really have little affect on the other site.

That's just my opinion.