Cigar Social Network
Cigar Board Buyouts... Mass exodus....?
As you may or may not know, a web developer by the name of Jon Caputo has been buying cigar boards/ forums left and right - 5 in total so far. What does this mean to world of internet cigar forums, could this mean a mass exodus to site such as Social Cigar? What are your thoughts?
Below you can find a message posted on another cigar board regarding the acquisitions:
Things are changing in the online cigar community, and I feel it’s necessary that I fill you in on what’s going on, and our stance on this recent development.
You may have noticed that five cigar forums were recently sold to a gentleman named Jon Caputo.
Jon purchased:
Club Stogie
Top 25 Cigar
Cigar Live
Cigar Review
Cigar Smokers
...about a week or so ago. This is quite an acquisition…
Jon approached me about a year ago and wanted to purchase CigarPass. I declined… A couple months ago he approached me again wanting to purchase CigarPass. Without going into too much detail on the offer, I will say it was enough money for a good down payment on a house (in California) plus money left over for a new car. His offer also included keeping me on board as a paid consultant. I doubt the offers he proposed to some of the other sites were as generous (surely it depends on the reputation, size, etc of the site he’s eyeing).
I started CigarPass in 2000; I have always had a very strong passion for cigars, which is why I decided to start CP long ago. CP has become one of the largest, most trafficked and most respected cigar communities around. I never had any intention of trying to make a quick buck with CP; I have made many very good friends because of CigarPass. That in itself is priceless, and I don’t want anything to change.
I don’t know Mr. Caputo other than the correspondence I have had with him over the past year, however he says that he is passionate about cigars, and wants to take the forums that he recently purchased to the next level. I will say that if Jon paid anywhere near what he offered me for CigarPass, he has a major investment in those five forums. Business is business, and it appears that his goal is to make money from those forums; most likely with advertising revenue, content purchased, etc.
We’ll have to wait and see how this transpires...should be quite interesting. My only thought is, if he is so passionate about cigars, why was he never been a member of any of the forums in the past? It’s about turning his purchases into revenue making entities. It seems people on the other forums have a lot of questions that are not being answered. As a member of a community, they’re entitled to answers. After all, it’s the members who make the community… When you think about it, one owner of multiple forums would most likely treat those forums as one, bundling them all together in a sense. If you get banned from one forum, do you get banned from the others as well? Are the rules now the same for all forums? Members of those communities have a lot of good questions – we’ll just have to wait and see how this plays out.
I did some research on Jon and his previous acquisitions, and I came across some unhappy people who had wished they never sold out. I’ve been participating in online communities for the past 15 years, and it’s rare that an acquisition of a community goes smooth. This acquisition is major, involving five cigar sites…
My loyalties have and always will be to this community and its members. CP is the largest privately owned cigar community around, and things aren’t about to change for us, you have my word. I have declined all offers, and will continue to do so. Passion is a strong word, and I think I’ve proven how passionate I really am about this community, and how much it means to me.
That’s all I know right now, we’ll have to wait and see how things transpire.
I wish the other forums a lot of success, however buy-outs rarely ever go smoothly for the members.
I will post more information as it becomes available.
Below you can find a message posted on another cigar board regarding the acquisitions:
Things are changing in the online cigar community, and I feel it’s necessary that I fill you in on what’s going on, and our stance on this recent development.
You may have noticed that five cigar forums were recently sold to a gentleman named Jon Caputo.
Jon purchased:
Club Stogie
Top 25 Cigar
Cigar Live
Cigar Review
Cigar Smokers
...about a week or so ago. This is quite an acquisition…
Jon approached me about a year ago and wanted to purchase CigarPass. I declined… A couple months ago he approached me again wanting to purchase CigarPass. Without going into too much detail on the offer, I will say it was enough money for a good down payment on a house (in California) plus money left over for a new car. His offer also included keeping me on board as a paid consultant. I doubt the offers he proposed to some of the other sites were as generous (surely it depends on the reputation, size, etc of the site he’s eyeing).
I started CigarPass in 2000; I have always had a very strong passion for cigars, which is why I decided to start CP long ago. CP has become one of the largest, most trafficked and most respected cigar communities around. I never had any intention of trying to make a quick buck with CP; I have made many very good friends because of CigarPass. That in itself is priceless, and I don’t want anything to change.
I don’t know Mr. Caputo other than the correspondence I have had with him over the past year, however he says that he is passionate about cigars, and wants to take the forums that he recently purchased to the next level. I will say that if Jon paid anywhere near what he offered me for CigarPass, he has a major investment in those five forums. Business is business, and it appears that his goal is to make money from those forums; most likely with advertising revenue, content purchased, etc.
We’ll have to wait and see how this transpires...should be quite interesting. My only thought is, if he is so passionate about cigars, why was he never been a member of any of the forums in the past? It’s about turning his purchases into revenue making entities. It seems people on the other forums have a lot of questions that are not being answered. As a member of a community, they’re entitled to answers. After all, it’s the members who make the community… When you think about it, one owner of multiple forums would most likely treat those forums as one, bundling them all together in a sense. If you get banned from one forum, do you get banned from the others as well? Are the rules now the same for all forums? Members of those communities have a lot of good questions – we’ll just have to wait and see how this plays out.
I did some research on Jon and his previous acquisitions, and I came across some unhappy people who had wished they never sold out. I’ve been participating in online communities for the past 15 years, and it’s rare that an acquisition of a community goes smooth. This acquisition is major, involving five cigar sites…
My loyalties have and always will be to this community and its members. CP is the largest privately owned cigar community around, and things aren’t about to change for us, you have my word. I have declined all offers, and will continue to do so. Passion is a strong word, and I think I’ve proven how passionate I really am about this community, and how much it means to me.
That’s all I know right now, we’ll have to wait and see how things transpire.
I wish the other forums a lot of success, however buy-outs rarely ever go smoothly for the members.
I will post more information as it becomes available.
Tags: buy, caputo, cigar, forums, jon, purchase, sell, social
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by notyeraveragechick on -
According to Jon, on his post to CL members today, they're merging them all into one big board.....that should prove to be interesting.....
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Permalink Reply by Mark Neff on -
IMHO, it's the "personality" of the individual board that makes each board great for it's own unique reasons. The merging of these boards into one will most likely strip away the uniqueness of each of them.
It's also the smallness of the boards that allows us to develop the friendships that we have over the years and that is something that will be harder to come by with a MONSTER board. I have meet several people through the boards that I now consider good friends and would never have met them otherwise. (many of which stay at my home while we hang out for the weekend and enjoy cigars and events together).
I completely understand the business motivation behind doing this but I am not convinced that it will benefit the members other than negotiating deals with the new advertisers. The unity and commradre will most likely suffer.
As a member of the boards for many years prior to starting Cigarmony.com, I would be lying if I didn't say that I wasn't nervous that us little guys will be tossed aside in pursuit of attracting the large sponsors (JR's, General, etc...) after spending years developing relationships with CS & CL members (many times at a loss $ wise but for the benefit of the member(s)).
With that said, only time will tell if the new board will be one that people will enjoy and develops a cohesiveness that we find within in each individual board.
Just my $.02 though
Happy smoking my friends.
~Mark
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Permalink Reply by Mark Neff on
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Based on the reply to a pm that I received from Jon, I can only assume that small retailers, including those who have long supported the sites he just purchased, will merely be collateral damage.
~M
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Permalink Reply by Mark Neff on
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Jon seems like a savvy guy. No one would enter a business the size of which you have created without detailed financial plans and that would include advertising rates and revenue projections, perhaps even commitments from large advertisers.
BTW - This is the same exchange he and I had, so I'm not saying anything that he and I haven't discussed.
~Mark
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Permalink Reply by Shervin on -
Here is a response found on another board, just getting the word around in an effort to enlighten the misinformed...
What is this about?
I love cigars. It is a passion of mine and has been for over 5 years. Cigars help me relax, cigars help me think, cigars and friends and football make me happy. Cigars allow me to ensure long spousal conversations that I might not normally be able to endure. I see this as an opportunity to do what I love, do what has never been done before, and hopefully make it into a successful business as well.
If we are able to be part of the largest cigar social site on the planet it will enable us to do things that apart would not be achievable. For instance - create an annual charity poker tournament. Perhaps we can partner with a couple of cigar companies to sponsor a herf in Iraq or Afghanistan for our troops. Being able to build a singular voice may enable us to receive membership discounts on cigar product from various vendors. We may be able to do an annual cigar members conference. In addition to all of that a number of members have mentioned to me the ability to start a cigar advocacy group whose voice can be heard and respected. I believe we will have the ability to do all of those things and more if we can come together in a strong, powerful, and coordinated way and everyone will win.
Below is a list of Q/A I put together. If there are any questions you have that are not covered below (and I am betting there will be!) please post them and I would ask for your patience as it is my intention to respond to each and every question.
Q: I heard you recently bought a bunch of sites. Which sites did you buy?
A: This is true. I have purchased ClubStogie.com, Cigar-Review.com, Top25cigar.com, CigarLive.com
Q: I thought you also purchased Cigarsmokers.com. Did you?
A: I had initial intensions of purchasing Cigarsmokers - however the deal has fallen apart. As a result I do NOT own Cigarsmokers.com and will not own Cigarsmokers.com
Q: So what exactly are your plans?
A: We are starting a new consolidated network of cigar sites under one name calling it PUFF.COM. On the home page of Puff.com we will be putting together a compilation of the best off all of the sites. We will have cigar reviews, video, blogs, podcasts, newsletters, a top25 section, a lifestyle section, interviews, and anything else that makes sense and is interesting. We are also open to any ideas you may have. We will also have a central location called forums.puff.com where all of the above mentioned forums will be merged.
Q: But what about all my posts, my post count, my friend network, my awards, my settings, etc
A: We are going to do our best to bring over ALL of that data so NONE of it will be lost.
Q: What about my name? What if someone has the same name on one of the other forums?
A: In an effort of fairness -any- duplicate names will be changed to reflect the board from which you came IE the handle MRCIGAR exists on all 3 forums. Each person would have their name changed to MRCIGAR-CR (cigar review) MRCIGAR-CS (club stogie) MRCIGAR-CL (cigar live) - this will happen automagically. (continued below)
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Permalink Reply by Shervin on
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Q: But I don’t want to be merged into a big forum. I like things the way they are and do not want any change! I like the friends and relationships on have on THIS board and don’t want to be forced to interact with others outside of my forum.
A: I understand and can appreciate your concerns. As a result here is what we will be doing. We will have our general cigar topics on forums.puff.com - all posts will be moved there. BUT we will be creating a 'clubhouse' for each individual forum. ONLY people who have come from that forum will have permission to see/post in the clubhouse. Existing mods/admins from each forum will continue to mod/admin their respective clubhouses as well as Puff.com. View the clubhouse as a sanctuary and more like a mini forum. You will gain access to the clubhouse by visiting the main page of forums.puff.com and you will see a forum called CLUB STOGIE CLUBHOUSE.
Q: What kind of topics will we have in our clubhouse?
A: Whatever you want. We want to avoid a lot of duplication - for instance if the main forums.puff.com has a section called Cigar Reviews we would want all of the posts dealing with cigar reviews to go there and not in 4 different places. However if you wanted a special HERF section for your clubhouse/board, a general place to discuss anything general cigar related, sports, whatever all of those are fine and we will set them up for you.
Q: What if I don’t want to be involved in the Puff.com community at all? Do I have to?
A: No. You don’t. You can simply participate in your clubhouse from your forum and if you decide to venture outside of that forum you can do that on your own terms.
Q: Who will the moderator/admins be for the new forums.puff.com?
A: All existing mods/admins of Clubstogie, Cigarlive, and Cigar-Review have agreed to continue in their roles as mods/admins. It will be a joint collaborative effort.
Q: When is all of this happening?
A: Most likely before the year is out - could be in a month or two. We have plenty of technical issues we need
to address in order to make it happen and to ensure everything works smooth out of the box.
Q: Will there be a PAID member area of the forum?
A: The entire forum will be open and free to everyone. We may have a paid membership section for things like special
discounts from vendors, sponsors, discounts on conferences and magazines and such but that would be the extent of it. If you have already paid for membership on Clubstogie that paid membership will move over to Puff.com
Q: What about forum rules? We have different rules here than the other forums do.
A: Mod teams from all forums will be getting together to discuss a combination of all of the rules from all 3 forums. It is my greatest hope that we will be able to take what makes each forum great and combine all of those strengths. It will take a collaborative effort on the part of the mods/admins/ and most importantly YOU for this to succeed.
OK guys this is really most of what I can think of. I will try to answer questions as much as possible. Please understand this is a fluid situation and not everything is etched into stone!
I can appreciate the fact that this is all conceptual at this point and once we launch Puff.com there will be a lot of additional concerns/questions. I give you my word we will work hard to not only address them but take all feedback into consideration. This is a joint effort - we will have the best combined mod/admin team for cigars in the world. And I am positive we will have the best cigar community as well. I intend to be super active in the forums and on the site - I will have a column on Puff.com and if any of you would like to participate beyond the forums (reviews, editorial, writing, blog, whatever!) please shoot me a PM.
Looking forward to meeting you guys for a smoke sometime real soon. We are shooting for a January/February Puff.com launch party where everyone will be invited. Drinks on me
jon
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Permalink Reply by Ratters on -
I must say I'm not real excited about what is happening. I'm a member of a few boards but club stogie was really my home. I find that boards have personalities and you find the ones that fit you best. I joined Cigar Pass but the feel of it wasn't a good match for me. I must say I'm afraid of the changes that are taking place, but if CS goes away there will be other places to frequent, some larger, some smaller. The biggest problem I'm finding is that large boards are just too hard to follow. I started on ar15.com almost ten years ago and back then it was about the size CS is now. But over the last four years the board has grown so large you can't even follow what's going on so other than the humidor forum I hardly go there. But I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
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Permalink Reply by JohnLongIsland on -
If this is a harbinger, top 25 cigars hasn't been updated in a week.
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Permalink Reply by JohnLongIsland on
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Dittos two months later.
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Permalink Reply by David D. Meade, Jr. on -
A month late on the subject but...
If he truly is an enthusiast, we can only hope that he adds to the sites, perhaps with corporate sponsors that want to constructively add to the sites without annoying adds blinking all over. One thing that a lot of forums could use is organization, and if he can allow them all to have their own sense of identity, but yet, find a way to tie them altogether so it's easy for members to converse with each other across multiple forums, that would be nice. I am a member of several forums, and although the vast array of knowledge and friendly members is nice, it can often become overwhelming to keep up with everything going on across all the forums. Heck, I hadn't been on here in quite a while because I just didn't have the time. At this point, we can only hope he improves things because we don't have much other choice than to sit back and wait.
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