Holy influx of members - Awesome

[TideRoll]

Originally Posted by Da Klugs

Combination of lots of things. Heartwarming and .. well I still think it's the Icehog3 ads we "placed". (see previous post)

RE PUff: In reality, it's a good idea that will work. An intersection place for NC cigar manufacturers and NC cigar smokers (many newer ones) to meet and explore the hobby with lots of bells and whistles. Definitely a step up from what I used.. Cigarsinternational.com yielding a better experience and more value to someone stating out and beyond. That the plan didn't reconcile with the past for some doesn't make it a bad one. It works well for the community envisioned in the future and have no doubt it will attract many for what it is and will become. Time to unpack the baggage and settle in wherever. Focus on the positives of "what is" and celebrate our commonalities as cigar smokers and fellow members of the overall cigar community.

As I understand it, that guy did manage to pull similar things off in the past in different arenas. I probably would have been more accurate if I had said given the culture at CS when he got involved, well, it probably wasn't going to be compatible with a significant percentage of that community. Of course, that's a pretty easy bit of hindsight.

As far as things getting snippy over there about references to CS or the transition or whatever, I guess I can understand why they would like to move forward but I'd have to say that permanently banning folks seems a bit counter-productive. I haven't followed those threads specifically, but I haven't seen any similar animosity on the part of you guys (the eleven) towards them. Quite the contrary.

That it is an idea that could work and might work yet seems reasonable to me. There's always room for a good idea and as a committed capitalist I don't hold the profit motive in disesteem at all. I am happy that everybody's favorite OG (Old Gorilla) was able to make a few bucks off of his long-time investment of time, money and effort. An additive approach would have perhaps worked better than the acquisitive/consolidating one, but it would have required a lot more time in the scene for Jon, and maybe it was a higher risk. I don't know...

At any rate, I'm happy some great BOTLs have given me a couple of new places to unpack my humidors. I'll probably check into the puff thing every now and then to see what it turns into, but it doesn't seem to be my thing right now.