It's happend

[madurolover]

Originally Posted by white_s2k

As we have seen in the past months.. money does not buy members. You may, or may not be a testament to that (publicly). But it is apparent.

I agree, but as I stated above, as long as there are clicks the number of members is basically moot.

[white_s2k]

Originally Posted by madurolover

I agree, but as I stated above, as long as there are clicks the number of members is basically moot.

I agree there. Hopefully, as the hype wears off the true numbers will emerge.

[icehog3]

Originally Posted by madurolover

In the past few days (8- 10) I have received PM's from some of the members here that seem to be held in high regard. I will not name them but I will tell you that never have I got such nasty, vile messages from people that I consider my "brothers".

Donnie, Aaron, Ji and Dave tried to help a place that at one time the vast majority of us loved. They did nothing wrong by trying to help steer CS (and eventually PVff) towards a better place. I think it was inevitable that it would not work.

That being said....Ladies and Gentlemen...Inmates.....

I think we have all had our say, some have had their bashing (I was admittedly one of the worst)...but now I think it is time to get back to what brought us together here in the first place....Friendship and Cigars.

Shawn put it wisely, and more than 100 posts later, I respectfully ask that we put this to bed, get positive about the great Haven we have all created here, and focus our energy on the Inmates of the Asylum.Tom

[SmokeyJoe]

Originally Posted by icehog3

Donnie, Aaron, Ji and Dave tried to help a place that at one time the vast majority of us loved. They did nothing wrong by trying to help steer CS (and eventually PVff) towards a better place. I think it was inevitable that it would not work.

That being said....Ladies and Gentlemen...Inmates.....

I think we have all had our say, some have had their bashing (I was admittedly one of the worst)...but now I think it is time to get back to what brought us together here in the first place....Friendship and Cigars.

Shawn put it wisely, and more than 100 posts later, I respectfully ask that we put this to bed, get positive about the great Haven we have all created here, and focus our energy on the Inmates of the Asylum.Tom

Agreed... I think it would be better for our community here if we did exactly as you suggest, Admiral!

[mmblz]

Originally Posted by icehog3

I think we have all had our say, some have had their bashing (I was admittedly one of the worst)...but now I think it is time to get back to what brought us together here in the first place....Friendship and Cigars.

This thread has been at least to some degree a necessary evil, since so many of us have shared the same or similar feelings. It would be hard not to discuss an event that such a huge percentage of our membership was involved in. It has been cathartic. But now let's put our brief fomentation behind us and get back to everything depicted in our banner - friendship, cigars, serenity.

[poker]

I also agree that its time.

Its time to let go of what once was.

What many of us had at Club Stogie is gone from there now. We all knew it was going to happen, but many times we as humans believe only what we want to believe. The fact is CS is no longer.

Jon bought CS strictly as a business venture. Nothing more, nothing less. Is that a bad thing? No, not really. Its how the world turns. Its the way things are.

Do we have to be happy about it? Of course not.
The one thing we must all remember, is that although we all have a choice of where we go in life, its "how" we get there that is most important.
Wouldn't it be nice if you were financially rich? Of course it would. But what if the cost of being rich was you had to ruin hundreds/thousands of people & their families financially? (read Enron here). Could you sleep well at night? Could you look yourself in the mirror every day and be proud of yourself for being financially "successful"? I know I personally could not. I have a pretty good feeling that you could not either.

Should we go raise hell over there at Puff by creating new usernames from different IP's or behind proxy servers? No.

I believe the members here are better than that.

I've seen what you do for each other by sending out cigar bombs.
I've seen you helping a fellow brother that you have never met by sending him cash in the event of an emergency.
I've seen you fly hundreds of miles away at your own expense just to say hi and share a cigar together for a couple days.
I've seen you take the time out your own life so you could organize and carry out tasks like sending thousands of cigars overseas to our troops that are serving to protect us.
I've seen you help the new guy who dosent know much about this hobby of ours and take him under your wing with nothing expected in return.
I've seen you open your houses to folks you have never met and welcome them with open arms.
I've seen all of this and many other actions that are beyond words.

So when I say you are better than that, I know for a fact that you are. I know for a fact we all are better than that.

For Cigar Asylum and Puff.com, things are going to turn out just as they are supposed to.

In the end, let Puff be. Let Jon be. What will happen there will happen regardless. CS is gone there. Jon is the owner there. Puff.com is a reality. You have no control over that fact.

What you do have control of however, is your own actions.
Be better than that. Lets all try to be better than that.

[taltos]

Awesome post Kelly. I have been one to knock Jon and his ways of doing things but never have attacked the mods or the membership over there. In fact, I have been considering offering to serve as a mod over there for a little while to protect some of the newbies and in a somewhat hopeful way think that a little loyal opposition might save Jon from himself and protect another destination.

[madurolover]

Originally Posted by taltos

Awesome post Kelly. I have been one to knock Jon and his ways of doing things but never have attacked the mods or the membership over there. In fact, I have been considering offering to serve as a mod over there for a little while to protect some of the newbies and in a somewhat hopeful way think that a little loyal opposition might save Jon from himself and protect another destination.

It won't work, trust me!

I would like to say one more thing on this subject and then I am hopefully through with it.

The thing that brought us all together was CIGARS. From there our relationships have evolved into true friendships. This is the way of true BOTL.
It is for that reason alone that I will not try to get myself banned from PVFF. There are gonna be new smokers that sign up there and I will be along to help guide them on their cigar journey. For me it is not about the name or any of the things that do not matter. It is about helping others as I have been helped. By getting yourself banned you have basically shut out access to many smokers that you could nurture into outstanding BOTL.

The new guys there will still be asking all the new guy questions and I will still give what I believe to be the correct answers. I am not directing this at you guys who got banned for essentially nothing. It is more for the guys who tried to get themselves banned. It is not a knock on you but rather hoping it will allow you to look back and see that maybe your decision was a little rash.

[taltos]

Thanks for the response, you helped me make up my mind. I will still try to help where I can but unofficially.