What's a brother to do...

[ggiese]

I wanted to write Hex a PM to address this issue. But it seems to me it's a bit bigger than Hex alone. It affects all of us here on this board, and I believe it needs discussion...

To no ones surprise, I am sick and tired of SFG75 (Alfred) dropping all of his crap all over this board like he's some kind of fairy bringing joy and happiness to everyone. He is doing this because he wants to make friends on this board. Knowing Alfred from previous boards, it is FAR more sinister than anyone would believe. It is about power and control - he wants to be able to establish humself as the authorative expert in the field of political views and cigars. The problem is, he is not willing to put in his dues and learn from people who know. - serve an apprenticeship, so to speak. I don't mean to sound snobbish, but there's a saying which reminds me so much of Alfred: "Those of you who think you know it all, are annoying to those of us who truly do!" I don't know it all, but I certainly know enough to tell you that Alfred doesn't know nearly as much as he thinks he does...

If you've watched the pattern - he's been "leg-humping" plain and simple. He offers encouragement and advice freely - much of which is shallow and bogus. For instance - a new person comes on the board asking advice about what cigars he should look into buying - and without missing a beat - Alfred is at his feet, humping his leg, telling that person they should buy a bunch of bundled crap you can't even buy at a local cigar store - it's only sold online - and the cigars are AWFUL!!! For what purpose?

He posts his left-wing political views all over the place, changing cigar talk into political discussions. Hell, I call him Alfred because he posts a "What Me, Worry?" Alfred E. Newman derogatory photo of our sitting president as his avatar. He now has American flags flying. His sigtag has links to his blog and AM760, places where even more left wing BS is contained.

Not that long ago he used "Carthago Delenda Est" as his sigtag without explanation. When it was exposed for what it meant (and believe me, it's not pretty), he just refuses to answer what it means, and changes it. I'm telling you, that sigtag is a very dangerous sign of who Alfred really is. Do some research on it and you'll understand...

Clearly, he baits others into attacks on him because of his bullshit, and then screams foul when HE feels they cross the line by mentioning it to him. An example is the " My son was born June 29th!" thread when Alfred states, "Have you and yours kissed sleep goodbye yet? It won't return for about eighteen years. " CC rightly responds, "And how would you know that" How old are your children? I know they're well short of 18, that's for sure." because we know his kids are 5 and under. So what does Alfred do, he starts the "CC's inappropriate post " thread to "out" CC for his bad behavior. Now whether or not Alfred was kidding at first, and CC was kidding in response, Alfred certainly was VERY serious about "outing" CC in the thread he started. And the funny thing is, Alfred posted twice in that thread - the congratulations first, and then the nonsense later (the one CC called him on) - like he knew (or should have known) it would cause a response.

Hex wants these discussions to remain in this Politics thread - and I try my best to accomodate that request. But Godamnit - Alfred keeps baiting in just about every thread he touches, and acts offended when called on it. Others on this board express displeasure when they see the constant bickering.

I don't suggest we ban Alfred - I believe someday he'll get it (maybe). If Alfred wants to stay on this board, by God - Let him! But, I hope everyone understands WHY the bickering is the way it is. Shagaroo analogized it incredibly well in one of his posts - "They should have just let me deal with the turd and left me alone and everyone would be happy and there would be peace in the neighborhood."

If Alfred chooses to stay and face the heat for his nonsense - so be it! If those who want to defend him wish to be heard - so be it! But, I'm tired of tip-toeing around this board because Alfred refuses to stop his nonsense, and then acts like everyone is picking on him because he started his nonsense.

I fear that Hex will end up losing his patience and begin to do some rash things. And what I MOST fear is what will happen to this board if that happens. If it were up to Alfred - myself and CC (and a bunch of others) would be banned, threads would be erased, and the talk on the board would remain juvenile in nature (because no person with any kind of cigar knowledge would want to stick around and deal with the likes of the garbage spewed by Alfred).

Please let those who know, deal with the one who THINKS he knows. Have patience - it will all work out. This forum has the potential to be a GREAT board. There are many good members here - and the board keeps growing day by day. To the newbies coming on board - things are not as bad as you may believe they are. This is not a war - it is a "police action"- nothing more than dealing with one rogue individual with a lot of baggage...

I see exciting things happening in the future. Cigar trades, box passes, contests, box splits and the like. But, in order for any of that to have any credibility here, there has to be checks and balances. You certainly don't want ANYONE to come in and take advantage of you (such as Oblik - whether intentional or not - trading in fake Cuban cigars). There needs to be older, experienced members to watch out for the others on this board to ensure you're not ripped off. Trust me - Scotty is not the one for the job - he already previously gave the thumbs up to the fake cigars Oblik tossed around - until it was finally pounded in his head they were indeed fake, and Oblik was not an honorable person. Or you will have someone come in here with some crap cigars they're trying to market, suck in the "pros" (like Scotty) who give them a ringing endorsement (like the Joya de Panama scandal at LTC).

If you choose to restrict this type of self-moderation, this board will remain at an infantile level. Take a GOOD look at Lets Talk Cigars - that is the DIRECT result of SFG75 and his cohorts doing to that board what I fear is going to happen here. They stifled criticism, allowed cheaters and morons to run the board, had juvenile discussions about cigars they were smoking, banned respected members of the cigar community, patted each other on the back even though they were CLEARLY wrong - and the list just goes on and on.

Thankfully we're not close to that yet here - but it's a distinct possibility if Scotty is allowed to have his way And that is the essence of the fight that you see on this board at this time - whether you agree with it or not. The worst thing that could happen right now would be for myself, CC and the others who oppose Scotty to walk away from this board - trust me.

Hex - please have some patience. I know we've been trying it - and I'm sure you're pretty much up to here with all the PM's you get about this nonsense - but I promise it will work out for the best. I hope Scotty gets it one day - he's bound to - but it will take time and he needs to keep hearing the message. I promise to keep MY really bad stuff to the Politics thread. And I hope others (including Scotty) will respect Hex in the same manner...