Hello All,

My name is Philip, I am a community manager for Verticalscope.com. I work with a small team that will manage the webmaster duties for Puff.com. There have been some recent changes to the site ownership and management and want to assure you we are here to make sure Puff.com continues to be the very best cigar community online.

What are our intentions?

We bring reliability, support and the infrastructure needed to ensure that the community will continue to be around for years to come. It’s our goal to work with everyone here to help provide the resources and required work to give this community a broader reach, to attract new members, and to better the overall knowledge shared in the community.

Will anything change?

Continuity is the focus here, YOU as the membership work very hard to keep building this community; we are primarily here to make sure the lights stay on and the site is kept running well. Every community is unique and should always be respected in that regard. You all have established your own unique rules and regulations and a strong reputation that is carried by all of this. For us it’s paramount to maintain this level of integrity and enthusiasm.

What am I here for?

Our primary role is to be the technical contact; you all contributed to building the strong foundation the site was built on. Moving forward we will all work together to keep the momentum and the community growing. We will be on the forum checking in daily to make sure regular maintenance is taken care of and keeping things running smoothly from behind the scenes. We will also be setting up a help desk on the site for when you have questions or issues with the site or your account and need assistance.

Looking forward to working with you all.

Thanks,

Philip

My name is Cricket. I also work with VerticalScope.

I live just outside of San Antonio, Texas and although I tend to be more of a country girl, I do enjoy spending time on the quieter parts of the Riverwalk.

riverwalk.jpg

Downtown, there is an awesome little shop (Club Humidor just below the Menger Hotel) that I love walking into because it smells amazing! I absolutely love the smell of a good cigar or pipe.

I look forward to getting to know all of you! f

I'm fairly new here but noticed that there are parts of the website that have been neglected for a year or more. Any plans to update them as well?

As you can see, pretty new still my self. There are certainly plans for this but the focus first is fixing anything that is not functioning as it should. After that we can look into upgrades and any changes that will benefit the community. Most are resistant to change so we want to make this a group effort and looking for all your help to report what needs fixing and what you think could use some upgrading.

-Philip

Hi, Phillip and Cricket.

Are there any plans to add moderators who are part of this community and can help police it? We've had several threads devolve into name calling, etc and that's not what we want around here, and reporting didn't seem to result in any action.

For this community to remain a thriving place (actually, for it to grow back to a thriving place) it really needs a few moderators who are actively engaged in the community, part of the cigar culture, and understand the unique perspectives on what we're interested in (particularly looming FDA action, proper etiquette regarding Cuban cigars, regulation of the marketplace, etc). While we appreciate having you both as "technical support," it's much more urgent that we have a responsive team of moderators to help with community support. Do the new owners have any plans for this?

Cheers,
-Derek

Ok..I was referring more to content then technical stuff. Will follow with interest as we go forward.

Hey Derek,

Absolutely! I am not at all a novice when it comes to cigars. I know what I generally like and indulge at a very amateur level. I am happy to discuss with anyone who wants to join the team to help. First I just want to get anything broken running as it should..

-Philip

Brilliant. Thanks for the response!

Noted, reviews will always be welcome. Articles on anything lifestyle related will be equally encouraged. We are working from the bottom up and looking for your ideas on what kind of content you would like to see featured.

-Philip

A welcome thread for all who come here expecting good things. From the beginning of this Forum which has had a history of volatility it behooves those who Administrate this place to understand the past before venturing into the future. There is an urgent need for good Amins to keep their fingers on the pulse of how this Forum runs but it isn't a prerequisite to have overwhelming knowledge of cigars. It's really about having good people who have had a history of being here and knowing how Forums are to function w/o alienating members and that means being honest and forward thinking. Most importantly it's about how to manage things before issues/problems start and dealing with them before they become a cancer. There are people I know on here that are immediately up to that task..Derek being one of them.