CS has been sold

[mojo65]

Wow .....

http://www.clubstogie.com/vb/showthread.php?t=187995

[zmancbr]

Interesting... it makes sense though if you don't have the time or desire to run it. I bet he got a decent price for it too! :mrgreen:

[drjammer]

CS isn't the only cigar forum he bought(Cigar Live, Cigarsmokers,Top25cigars and Cigar Review)I don't know what the plan is, but it sounds kind of fishy to me :?:

[zmancbr]

CS isn't the only cigar forum he bought(Cigar Live, Cigarsmokers,Top25cigars and Cigar Review)I don't know what the plan is, but it sounds kind of fishy to me :?:


Sounds like a mass round up to me... that is a lot of sites to admind and run... I bet the ads will start spamming anytime soon now! :roll:

[drjammer]

CS isn't the only cigar forum he bought(Cigar Live, Cigarsmokers,Top25cigars and Cigar Review)I don't know what the plan is, but it sounds kind of fishy to me :?:


Sounds like a mass round up to me... that is a lot of sites to admind and run... I bet the ads will start spamming anytime soon now! :roll:
Agreed :roll:

[glking]

Yikes!!

I'm hoping for the best, but expecting the worst.

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[moglman]

Not really a surprise. We'll see what changes are in store. I have a lot of history and strong feelings for CS even though I haven't had much time lately to contribute.

[zmancbr]

Not really a surprise. We'll see what changes are in store. I have a lot of history and strong feelings for CS even though I haven't had much time lately to contribute.


Scott, from your experience I take it you felt like this was coming eventually? What are your thoughts on the new ownership?

[physiognomy]

-edit- Re-read my dribble & figured I could have spared a few words. Big change sux & I'm hoping for the best...

[moglman]

Not really a surprise. We'll see what changes are in store. I have a lot of history and strong feelings for CS even though I haven't had much time lately to contribute.


Scott, from your experience I take it you felt like this was coming eventually? What are your thoughts on the new ownership?


I know Paul wanted to turn it over for some time, but only to someone responsible, and no one from the board stepped up. If Paul is comfortable with it, it alleviates a lot of my worry, since it's his baby.

I know nothing about the guy but it appears he bought several other boards too including CigarReview, CigarLive and CigarSmokers, maybe others, and tried to buy CigarPass. This sounds like a nasty corporate takeover to me. It wouldn't surprise me if this Jon dude works for Altadis or some such. Too many baords owned by the same person or company can't be good.

[mojo65]

All we can do is go along for the ride.... and if it go's to shit....we have a home here.

[opusfxd]

All we can do is go along for the ride.... and if it go's to shit....we have a home here.
Thanks Fred!!

[zmancbr]

All we can do is go along for the ride.... and if it go's to shit....we have a home here.


Yeah... and to be honest I spend twice as much time here lol... :mrgreen:

[moglman]

This was posted on CP by someone else

"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."

[Spect]

Thanks for the info Scott.

[jcarlton]

All we can do is go along for the ride.... and if it go's to shit....we have a home here.
Thanks Fred!!


Yep, thanks Fred!!!!!

[twinarch]

Yikes!!

I'm hoping for the best, but expecting the worst.

Now on ClubStogieFace!
Every time anyone in the world smokes a cigar, twitter will send a tweet to your facebook account, which will then update your myspace page, and stream live video of the event to your ClubStogieFace page!
(after you scroll through the three pages of flash ads.)
Get a new text message for every cigar smoked!
Get nonstop IM's for sexy women and mail-order prescriptions!
Make sure everyone on the planet knows what cigar you like best while taking a dump!
Make sure everyone on the planet knows WHEN you are taking a dump!
All this for ONLY $4.99 a month!


I think you're right. In a couple minutes of research on this guy and I find this snippet about a seminar he teaches:

Jonathan Caputo (CEO of Developer Shed - popularly known on the web as devshed.com) will provide an advanced session on Search Enine Optimization (SEO) as a marketing strategy for online dating and social networking websites. Being the most cost efficient form of marketing producing some of the highest revenue streams, Search Enine Optimization (SEO) has become the most popular form of marketing for both affiliates and site owners. This session will specifically discuss techniques as they apply for online dating and social networking.

Will be interesting to see how all this pans out.

[drjammer]

Looks like it didn't work out at cigarsmokers.com

"Cigarsmokers.com Ownership Update

Due to circumstances outside our control, Jon and I have decided to terminate his purchase of Cigarsmokers.com. As a result ownership of Cigarsmokers.com as of today is returned to me. It's been a very hectic week for the two of us, and we have decided that it's in our best interest and the best interest of the Cigar Smokers community to amend our prior agreement.

We will keep you updated during the transfer process which unfortunately could take a few weeks to completely resolve due to ICANN domain transfer regulations.

I wish Jon the best of luck with his business endeavors, there are absolutely no hard feelings between us, we just felt this is right thing to do at this time."

[mojo65]

Looks like the new owner is going to tell us his plans by close of business Friday. Its starting to get ugly in that thread.

[zmancbr]

Looks like the new owner is going to tell us his plans by close of business Friday. Its starting to get ugly in that thread.


I figured it would lol... but if he trashes the place I can see lots of people leaving for another board! :shock:

[glking]

Wow....

There's even a shitstorm going on at CP over this:

http://www.cigarpass.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=49822

[zmancbr]

Wow....

There's even a shitstorm going on at CP over this:

http://www.cigarpass.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=49822


Well... people need to understand a forums is the people not the site... if the people leave then the forum is nothing... of course there is a LOT of hard work and knowledge that goes into a site and I can't blame anyone for selling a site... but trying to change something into a cash cow will be tough when it is a forum!