Took a look over there. All I can say is, wow...and thank God for the Asylum!
[Reply]

I'm glad I found this place first. That other place seems kinda ugly. :-)
[Reply]

The news of Caputo's passing just went public the last couple weeks.
[Reply]

I couldn't even find an obit and usually that's pretty easy to do.
[Reply]

Same here. I actually logged in yesterday and was surprised to find I still have an active account. I'll have to remember to log in again in four or five years.

While I didn't agree with Caputo and what he did to the site, I'm sorry to hear of his passing. I never felt he was evil, just misguided. I wish his family and the Jungle/Puff well.
[Reply]

I can agree with that my friend.
[Reply]

There was too much clutter over there for me so I never signed on. I also found the whole fish-sea thing a little silly.
I gather the guy was relatively young, with kids. I feel sorry for his family. I have a feeling there is not a pretty back story to this.
Anyways, it looks like it will be exiting for them over there for a while longer... puff on!:-)
[Reply]

Pvff.com was created as a business venture. Back in 2008 Jon Caputo bought up a number of forums (around 6 IIRC, some larger than others) and merged them into one giant forum in what appeared to be an attempt to dominate SEO rankings and sell advertising space. In the process, a number of good communities were essentially destroyed.

You can read the rest of it here:
http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showthread.php?t=14966

I believe Caputo was in his mid-50's when he passed.
[Reply]

44 y.o.
[Reply]

Thanks Mark.
[Reply]

I wasn't into good cigars back in '08 like now, and I certainly hadn't been looking at forums on line either. It's pretty interesting how the cigar forum saga played itself out back then. I'm pretty happy how this turned out, forum wise, not the early death of the other owner of course.

A history lesson for those of us not involved back then.
[Reply]

I was a former member there. My only regret is how I was established over there and now I have to start over again. I'm surey sentiments are shared by other members as well.

Oh well, such is the internet I suppose.
[Reply]

What an ugly place. I actually got the email. I forgot I even had an account there. I would have joined there around the same time I joined here. But I don't think I ever really went there. Bad vibes.

Glad I picked the right place to call home.
[Reply]

:-)...I'm sure if you "sweet talk" the Mods, and offer some small tokens, they would be more than happy to bump up your Post count and Trader feedback to make you feel right at home:-)
[Reply]

Just think, you can participate in the NST deal again. No, I understand, trader rep does mean something.
[Reply]

It is very frustrating and I certainly understand where you are coming from. When Club Stogie was sold, I was very anxious but since the same mods were there and Jon Caputo seemed enthusiastic about maintaining the CS culture, I relaxed. It turned out that the changes around what became pvff.com were such that I was no longer comfortable there and so came over here.

I'm glad that reputation bumps here are not like at CS, because if you had a good circle of friends who had huge reputation numbers then you could quickly have huge numbers as well. I wasn't on the board long before I had huge numbers, mostly from friends in the banter thread. I like the system used here better, but still think that the system is inherently flawed because you can bump someone for just about anything, so a large ring gauge doesn't necessarily equate to cigar knowledge. That's the principle reason that mine is turned off.

I hope that you enjoy your stay in the asylum and that the style here meets your needs.
[Reply]

:-) Mark is wise!!
[Reply]

I remember
[Reply]

Was it that bad when you guys decided to split and form CA?
[Reply]

Bottom line- tragic to go at 44 and leave a family behind.
[Reply]