Hershey wants to know...

[cigarsarge]

Yeah, quite a few. You're entitled to your opinion. I personally feel that bringing Bill back would be the worst thing to happen to this board since... well, since he was here.

Sorry we don't see eye to eye on this.

Ditto..My exact thoughts. If Bill is brought back..What about Sid...What about Manix...What about Corona Gigante?

Think about it. Banning decisions should be final.

[nhcigarfan]

Ditto..My exact thoughts. If Bill is brought back..What about Sid...What about Manix...What about Corona Gigante?

Think about it. Banning decisions should be final.

Members feelings about Bill aside, where was his banning poll? I must have missed that.

Sid got one.

Manix is the reason we have them.

csmokers banning policy is as follows

Banning Policy
Since this is a member moderated community I wish to lay down ground rules for the banning of a user.

• PM sent to Admin. Admin will review.
• If Admin deems the situation to be a banable offence then a poll will be created in the Politics forum.
• The poll options will be as follows:
  • Permanent ban
  • 7 day suspension (some situations may warrant 30 days)
  • No ban
• A 51% majority must rule in favor of the ban.
• At least 10 senior members must vote in the poll for results to be valid.
• The poll will be open for voting for 24 hours.

When the policy is followed, I agree with Ken that the decision should be final. However, the policy was not followed in Bill's case.

Also, Corona Gigante is not banned, just run off. He can come back anytime he chooses.

[Shelby07]

Hex made the final decision. I think his decisions trump polls since he foots the bill. There are some folks I'd like to see reinstated here. but Sarge makes a good point.

[hex1848]

I haven't heard a peep from Bill since he got banned. I would be willing to listen to what he has to say. But I'm not going to study the matter any further with out any contact from him. I figured if he wanted to stay, he would have made an issue out of staying.

[kevin7]

Bill's got better shit to do,I know cause I consider him a friend and actually converse with him in real life. cigarlive has the asshat angle covered as far as members and moderators. This place seems fine to me

[drew_goring]

Bill's got better shit to do,I know cause I consider him a friend and actually converse with him in real life. cigarlive has the asshat angle covered as far as members and moderators. This place seems fine to me

Watch out Kevin...I heard that they ban members for talking bad about them on other sites...oh wait. A little late for that.

[Diesel Grinch]

Watch out Kevin...I heard that they ban members for talking bad about them on other sites...oh wait. A little late for that.

Funny how they also said what happens on other sites doesn't concern Cigarlive.

DG

[Diesel Grinch]

Members feelings about Bill aside, where was his banning poll? I must have missed that.

Sid got one.

Manix is the reason we have them.

csmokers banning policy is as follows

Banning Policy
Since this is a member moderated community I wish to lay down ground rules for the banning of a user.

• PM sent to Admin. Admin will review.
• If Admin deems the situation to be a banable offence then a poll will be created in the Politics forum.
• The poll options will be as follows:
  • Permanent ban
  • 7 day suspension (some situations may warrant 30 days)
  • No ban
• A 51% majority must rule in favor of the ban.
• At least 10 senior members must vote in the poll for results to be valid.
• The poll will be open for voting for 24 hours.

When the policy is followed, I agree with Ken that the decision should be final. However, the policy was not followed in Bill's case.

Also, Corona Gigante is not banned, just run off. He can come back anytime he chooses.

Hex made the final decision. I think his decisions trump polls since he foots the bill. There are some folks I'd like to see reinstated here. but Sarge makes a good point.

No nhcigarfan is right. We do have rules and everyone has to follow them. Hex is a friend of mine so is Bill. I do not agree with Hex breaking the rules even if he owns the site. This site lives or dies by the community. Not one person.


DG

[Shagaroo]

Bill got what he deserved and the forum is better for it. Hex asked him repeatedly to stop and Bill kept thumbing his nose at Hex and kept the forum in a constant state of unrest. The only thing Hex should have done differently is ban Bill months earlier. And who really needs anymore of Bill's 3 page whines trying to twist what someone else did into a bannable offense while he tries to twist him doing the exact same thing into something entirely different and noble? Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[nhcigarfan]

Members feelings about Bill aside....

All I'm saying is that a policy or rule should be followed in every instance. For those who were banned by a poll, I agreed with Ken, it should be permenant.

For those who weren't... I think it should not be permenant. If you guys want to make it permenant, start a poll.

[Shagaroo]

All I'm saying is that a policy or rule should be followed in every instance. For those who were banned by a poll, I agreed with Ken, it should be permenant.

For those who weren't... I think it should not be permenant. If you guys want to make it permenant, start a poll.

And all I am saying is he who pays the bills makes the rules. If I am not mistaken, Hex stated the old system was going away before Bill was banned. It was during the duplicate account dust up if I remember correctly. And Bill wasn't just being a jerk to members and causing problems, he was essentially telling Hex to go piss up a rope everytime Hex asked him to stop and Bill said no, or acted like Hex never said anything. He thought he was untouchable, even from the owner of the forum. He thought wrong.

[Shelby07]

And all I am saying is he who pays the bills makes the rules. If I am not mistaken, Hex stated the old system was going away before Bill was banned. It was during the duplicate account dust up if I remember correctly. And Bill wasn't just being a jerk to members and causing problems, he was essentially telling Hex to go piss up a rope everytime Hex asked him to stop and Bill said no, or acted like Hex never said anything. He thought he was untouchable, even from the owner of the forum. He thought wrong.

Yup... that's the way I remember it, too.

...and I kind of have the feeling that if certain things were made public there would have been an automatic ban, even according to the old rules.

[nhcigarfan]

And all I am saying is he who pays the bills makes the rules. If I am not mistaken, Hex stated the old system was going away before Bill was banned. .

I have no recollection of this.

[CgarDan]

Common guys what was done and in the past is exactly that. If some one wants to bring a banned member back maybe a poll on that can be started to avoid further complications or disagreement betwen people here.

[hex1848]

Common guys what was done and in the past is exactly that. If some one wants to bring a banned member back maybe a poll on that can be started to avoid further complications or disagreement betwen people here.

I agree 100%. But until someone comes forward and states that they want to be back in then its a moot point. We can debate bringing someone back all we want, but if they don't want to come back then why even bring it up.

I don't like banning people but it becomes very difficult to maintain civility with out removing members from the community. Unfortunately it has to be done from time to time.

[Shelby07]

Common guys what was done and in the past is exactly that. If some one wants to bring a banned member back maybe a poll on that can be started to avoid further complications or disagreement betwen people here.

Dan... you know I am your friend, but I don't think that ignoring the past is the proper thing to do here. Ignoring the past never works.

I've said it before... this used to be a great place to come and talk. That's the part of the old board I want to get back. There is still a wealth of information available here due to the contributions and efforts by many members, not just a few. There is no doubt that activity has dropped off, but I think it was because the turmoil, insults, name calling and general nastiness of a few members along with the general feeling that if you didn't show these "FOG's" the proper respect you would be burned at the stake. Right around the time of the last meltdown came an alternative board that many folks here gravitated to, and apparantlly they found that they liked the culture there better than here. That's the long and the short of it, and the results speak for themselves.

Were there a bunch of asshats that came and went here? Sure. The board seemed to attract them like flies to shit, and policing was left to a bunch of guys who felt they had to give a good paddling before they let it go. Some of it was fun, but as time went on more and more members felt that this was the "norm" and they tried to fit in which did nothing but raise the noise level. But the majority of members here were and continue to be good people who are looking for comradery and a place to discuss and expand their enjoyment of cigars.

Let's go ahead and get this out in the open. Many others have gone to Cigar Live. It didn't help CS's cause that some of the more *respected* members here went there and tried to trash their board, then started crying foul all over the Internet when they weren't allowed to continue. For those who don't know, the owner of that board is an IT guy ("Information Technologies" for those who don't know what it stands for) and he was able to see exactly what was going on with regards to CS. He'd watch when an "innocent" post was made by one of the FOG's here, then he'd see a bunch of people immediately log in, go directly to that post and read it, then log off without ever looking at anything else. It was pretty obvious to him that the poster was putting something up then going back and telling people to log in and take a look. And it was proved beyond a doubt that one ex-FOG here logged into his board with no less than 3 very familiar aliases. He was able to track it very easily. He put a stop to it and his board was immediately labeled an asshat board by the FOGs here at CS.

It also doesn't help anyone's cause when some folks trash talk the CL board on other forums. What it does do is support the feeliing that many previous and potential members have that the CS FOG's are still alive and well and playing their stupid little self serving games. In my opinion, these folks are not out to help this board, they are out to bolster their self esteem and protect their individual "status," and being associated with CS doesn't help the reputation of this board at all.

So it's out in the open. That's the kind of shit some of our "well respected" FOGs get their jollies from. I think we are at a critical point right now. Either we can bring back our "Generals" with open arms, or we can try to rein them in. If we're going to have a discussion about what's best for the future of this board, let's do it with an open mind to the past and keep our damn egos in check.

We can grow to be a great board again, but not by playing stupid games and trash talking other boards and putting other members through the fire for our own little self indulging purposes. We can exist in tandem and even help other boards to grow. In doing so we can improve our own reputation and be a place that other folks want to visit. We can be a quality board that can stand on our merits instead of our criticism. This strategy that some have to make themselves relatively bigger by knocking down the other guy never really makes anyone any better. It just drives away the other guy and leaves nobody but the bullies feeling better about themselves.

I agree that Hex has all the authority he needs to do what he wants with this board. He can lock discussions, he can ban users, and he can do it without permission or approval from anyone. He bends over backwards to give us a place to gather and talk freely, but in the end his wishes and words need to be respected. And if anyone feels he needs their permission to run his board the way he wants to, they should think again.