As a small matter of note - the forum most certainly is a public one - it may be owned by a private company, but that makes no odds: no registration is required to view the contents of the site.
by the same rationale, Walmart is public as well (even though they are privately owned) ...and so are Churches. if you went into either one of those places and disrupted the rules they established, you would be kicked out. Cigar.com has every right to make whatever rules about the forum that it owns and runs. they have the right to enforce those rules as they see fit. they also have the right to let the general public view their privately run forum.
So didn't Joshua Smelko step in as the moderator, presumably for exactly this type of thing? He would represent ccom and decide what they did and didn't want up here, rather than the customers deciding. Just saying...
Josh and I were in Nicaragua last week when this post came up so we did not get to it. I am also trying to stay a bit more active on the forum. The truth is that I set up this forum, and by the time I got around to laying down the rules, I noticed something remarkable, guys were demonstrating amazing etiquette. For example, I belong to a private cigar club here in chicago, there are no rules posted when you enter the lounge, but guys have created their own code of conduct. As new members come in, they learn the ropes from existing members and if a guy makes a mistake, he is never held with his feet to the fire rather he is pulled aside privately or brought up to speed in a very friendly manner. It is never an ego thing and when there is any discussion of etiquette, it is understood that the incoming members dont take offense and that the existing guys handle things very casually (to me the biggest offense would be if an existing guy had a big ego trip or laid into a new member in an unfriendly manner when newbies are learning the ropes). This is a public forum, but if guys clash with the existing code of conduct set forth by the members, I assure you, people who dont want to play along simply wont want to stay around. At the end of the day, this forum was created for customers of Cigar.com. Much like a store has a lounge for customers to hang out in, this is your space. The only written rule I have, is that no one posts anything offensive. I also reserve the right to delete any thread or post or ban any member for any reason. Besides that, this is your community, your space. I would hate to screw it up by making a million rules and having you guys feel like it is not your own. I think you guys are complete gentleman and in a sense, we are all moderators and watch out for this forum and each other. I wouldn't have it another way.
As a small matter of note - the forum most certainly is a public one - it may be owned by a private company, but that makes no odds: no registration is required to view the contents of the site.
by the same rationale, Walmart is public as well (even though they are privately owned) ...and so are Churches. if you went into either one of those places and disrupted the rules they established, you would be kicked out. Cigar.com has every right to make whatever rules about the forum that it owns and runs. they have the right to enforce those rules as they see fit. they also have the right to let the general public view their privately run forum.
So didn't Joshua Smelko step in as the moderator, presumably for exactly this type of thing? He would represent ccom and decide what they did and didn't want up here, rather than the customers deciding. Just saying...
Josh and I were in Nicaragua last week when this post came up so we did not get to it. I am also trying to stay a bit more active on the forum. The truth is that I set up this forum, and by the time I got around to laying down the rules, I noticed something remarkable, guys were demonstrating amazing etiquette. For example, I belong to a private cigar club here in chicago, there are no rules posted when you enter the lounge, but guys have created their own code of conduct. As new members come in, they learn the ropes from existing members and if a guy makes a mistake, he is never held with his feet to the fire rather he is pulled aside privately or brought up to speed in a very friendly manner. It is never an ego thing and when there is any discussion of etiquette, it is understood that the incoming members dont take offense and that the existing guys handle things very casually (to me the biggest offense would be if an existing guy had a big ego trip or laid into a new member in an unfriendly manner when newbies are learning the ropes). This is a public forum, but if guys clash with the existing code of conduct set forth by the members, I assure you, people who dont want to play along simply wont want to stay around. At the end of the day, this forum was created for customers of Cigar.com. Much like a store has a lounge for customers to hang out in, this is your space. The only written rule I have, is that no one posts anything offensive. I also reserve the right to delete any thread or post or ban any member for any reason. Besides that, this is your community, your space. I would hate to screw it up by making a million rules and having you guys feel like it is not your own. I think you guys are complete gentleman and in a sense, we are all moderators and watch out for this forum and each other. I wouldn't have it another way.
Comments
Damn that was beautiful..thanks Alex
AWESOME