yeah TOM!! :-)

Absolutely.....Friendships, Cigars and Pipes. :-) :-) :-)

Yay, :-) :-)

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

Therapy is good for the soul. Personally and community wise. Many of us needed it.. some of us more than others. (Me in that group) It's the answer to why this thread has continued to exist contrary to our stated .. "no bashing of other forums and owners policy". Not our proudest moment but necessary to get it out.

I'd like to thank the many members and the portion of the 11 that I'm sure have been a bit uncomfortable with the vitriol we have displayed here but have kept quiet based upon the fact that they are wise and know that steam needs a release when you combine water and fire. The 11 who could have stopped this, but in many cases contributed, hope dispensation will be granted from those who may have thought this inappropriate or worse. Therapy has it's price.

Fires dying down and... well we know where the water is. :-)

I changed the thread title's tense. Issue is pretty much over with unless we choose to drag it out.

At a point in time, and that time is coming, we need to move on and let lying dogs sleep. There is an old Jewish Holocaust survivor saying that seems to apply for the many who seem looking for closure here...

"The best revenge is to live a good life". I love our lives here. Multiply it by 1500+ and you have some pretty serious vengeance on display daily. :-)

I guess it might be time to put all of this to rest. A big part of me wants to continue but I know that's just my stubborn nature talking and continuing this is kind of pointless.

May calmer heads prevail even if I'm not one of those heads.

I don't recomend we pour water over anyone who wants to keep bashing. Hell, I might even start a small "Bash everything you haet" board that has nothing to do with Cigars and everything to do with b!tching and drama.

Actually, that might not be such a bad idea, I could make a fortune by starting such a board and in a couple of years selling it to Jon.

Cheers,
Rob

Very well spoken Dave.

Just sitting here with a hot cup of tea and thankful for the team of 11 for this sanctuary.

I just read something funny on another board and I thought I would post it here for the lulz.

and 'puff' means gay in England.

Ok, I also have a list of the sites that the asshat purchased.

Club Stogie
Top 25 Cigar
Cigar Live
Cigar Review
Cigar Smokers

Cheers,
Rob

well I posted it earlier, because in fact it is a suiting name, Puff means brothel in German, and it is fitting because someone is getting paid and the rest all got phucked.

Now this is the kind of leadership I've grown to expect out of you guys.

In the great words of WAR:

Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?

I seen you 'round for a long, long time, yeah
I remembered you when you drink my wine

Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?
Why can't we be friends?

You know it was fun while it lasted. But I am so over the smoldering pile that is now P***.com. That Guy just rubs me the wrong way. From his first introduction and his attitude towards the Cigars for the Troops.
Oh well I won't ever be back so I am sure he will be glad to rid of another
one.

This really pisses me off.

Those pulling that crap should be ashamed of themselves.

I think a good root in the nuts to provide food for thought is apropos. Let me go and get my pointy-steel-toe cowboy boots........

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.

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.

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's difficult to expand on what my fellow admins have stated. Over the last couple of weeks, my emotions have run the gamut. Anger - frustration - sadness - symapthy. These emotions were intensified by an underlying desire and belief that things could be improved at pvff.com. We all know how that has turned out.

As I stated in the "who do you wish to thank" thread, I am truly grateful for the other admins and the new members here for restoring my faith in the cigar community.

This is akin to a death in the family. We need to grieve and then get on with our lives. Remember fondly that which brought us together. Because now, The Asylum is home.

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.