Members with over 500 points

[ljlemer]

Members with over 500 points
in alphabetical order:

Anthony-1987
ljlemer-15652
mhuss-501
mistagordo-541
monteclaro-588
newguy-506
senorpablo-703
sticks-576

Newguy and Sticks have progressed incredibly fast. They only joined in November!
Sticks is about to break 100 reviews!

[theoldcc]

No honorable mention for me?  

*P

[NewGuy]

Rack

[mhuss]

It's great to have a collection of new members that really take pride in the site and provide a lot of meaningful information.  I'm of course not talking about myself, though!        I think NewGuy has officially passed me in points, and like Larry said, Sticks is reviewing cigars at a huge pace.  I can't keep up with these guys!  I do have an excuse though.      This isn't the best time of year to be outside smoking cigars, so my overall production has certainly taken a hit.  But congrats to all the new folks that are doing an excellent job here on the site.  Keep up the good work!

[ljlemer]

ccforme - 1/1/2008  8:44 AM

No honorable mention for me?  

*P

And a BIG Honorable mention for ccforme, who will celebrate one year of membership in 12 days and has managed to earn an average of more than one point each and every day, for a total of 395! By his anniversary he will have surpassed 400 (if he stays at this pace) !! You go, man!!    

Feel better now?

[ljlemer]

ccforme - 1/1/2008  8:44 AM

No honorable mention for me?  

*P

My giving positive reinforcement to the most active is not meant to imply anything whatsoever is wrong with being less active. If I feel this is demoralizing less active members or that they feel implied pressure to participate more, then I'll stop this because it'll do more harm than good.

[NewGuy]

mhuss - 1/1/2008  12:05 PM

It's great to have a collection of new members that really take pride in the site and provide a lot of meaningful information.  I'm of course not talking about myself, though!        I think NewGuy has officially passed me in points, and like Larry said, Sticks is reviewing cigars at a huge pace.  I can't keep up with these guys!  I do have an excuse though.      This isn't the best time of year to be outside smoking cigars, so my overall production has certainly taken a hit.  But congrats to all the new folks that are doing an excellent job here on the site.  Keep up the good work!

I'm sure people who contribute do so, at least in part, because they also consume alot of other members posts and info. That kind of sharing makes the world go around [zen emoticon]

NewGuyndhi

Rack

[Sticks]

All of you guys write some fantasic reviews and I always look forward to them. The variety of what my fellow members smoke boggles the mind and I am just a pretender to the throne when I see the quality cigars and reviews that many of you always are able to share with us. I want to thank Senior Pablo for having such a site where we can get together to do a little bonding and sharing our thoughts and experiences on smoking cigars.

[NewGuy]

I smell what you're steppin' in Sticks. A real sense of community here among the cigar fanatics.  

Rack

[mistagordo]

I'll second that.  Having been one of the longer members (not the most active - just here from the early days) I can say it has been great watching the site grow and evolve into what it has today.

[NewGuy]

Say Gordo

When did the site start exactly? Would you give a brief history?

Rack

[mhuss]

I couldn't agree more with Sticks and NewGuy.  This is definitely the best cigar in all the land!  I'm counting my blessings that I found this place.  I had a mere handful of cigars when I first signed up, but now, through all the education and Cigar Passes, my humidor is now sitting three rows high worth of cigars.  And my knowledge has grown beyond measure.  I, too, would be interested in a little story about the beginnings of the site.

[SenorPablo]

Sure...a brief history, since the history is pretty brief...

This started out of a pet project a few years ago.  I worked on it on the side when I had time, and wound up having a children here and there which sucked up all my time.  I continued to work on it and eventually paid a crappy ISP for a very cheap site that gave me a place to stand up the site on the internet and continue the fine tuning.  I registered the name cigargeeks and attched it to the site and it was launched in its infancy unintentionally in January 2007 - barely a year old now.  I really just had it up to work on it - not really wanting to drive members until it was more complete  with the graphics, color schemes, and logo (boy was it ugly before the face lift.)

Somehow, some strange way people found it.  I never advertised it or submitted it to any search engines but somehow i noticed people were surfing it.  Next thing I knew we had our first "real" member - ccforme!  And he is still around today.

In May 2007 I had finally decided the site was done enough too launch with a cleaner look and feel and found a quality hosting company with affordable prices and moved the site there.  Right around that time monteclaro and mistagordo joined and they rounded out the 3 "oldest" active members of the site.

That's pretty much it.  A, not as brief as i thought,  history of CigarGeeks.com.  Basically laucnhed for real in May 2007 and grown beyond my expectations since.  Thanks to all the great members who have made this a very enjoyable experience!

-Paul

P.S. You can read some earlier home page posts that sort of lay out some history here (up to the latest home page post which is the ongoing points contest):
http://www.cigargeeks.com/community/boxx/news-archive.asp

[SenorPablo]

By the way guys...thanks for all the kind words!  I really do appreciate it.

-Paul

[ljlemer]

On 6/30/2007 you announced a December contest? Wasn't that a little premature? And if you had a contest in June, weren't the contestants a foregone conclusion, there being so few active members?

The Historian
Just gathering facts
for posterity.

[NewGuy]

Nice! Thanks for the history brief Paul. Can you imagine the five year forecast?

Rack

[ljlemer]

NewGuy - 1/3/2008  6:20 PM

Nice! Thanks for the history brief Paul. Can you imagine the five year forecast?

Rack

I can. Sit down. This isn't pretty. Cigargeeks is huge, members overflowing, cigar passes take 6 months to finish, people barely know each other, the database is bursting with entries, it's run by volunteers. Paul is burnt out but still oversees. Success has ruined the original cameraderie, but now there are so many members that Paul rakes in a second income selling advertising space on the website. Pop-ups interefere with every page and in 5 years they're smart enough to fool any blocker. By then my wife has forced me to quit smoking and I've drifted off. We're still in Iraq. Petroleum is $1200 a barrel. The dollar is nearly worthless and the National Debt is being called in by foreign banks. The country is in foreclosure. Membership in Cigargeeks is $25 a month, but that's only 25 cents in 2008 dollars. Cigars are taxed at 300%. Smoking in your own home is illegal.
You can only smoke outside 100 feet away from another human being. Even two smokers can't smoke together because of secondhand smoke. The winning lottery number on this date in 2013 is 596267074. You can stand up now.

[Sticks]

Thanks Larry for the lilttle insight into the future. The wife had to come in here and slap me to stop me from shreiking like a lady. I'm okay now but now I really need a good cigar to calm me down.  

[SenorPablo]

ljlemer - 1/3/2008  1:37 AM

On 6/30/2007 you announced a December contest? Wasn't that a little premature? And if you had a contest in June, weren't the contestants a foregone conclusion, there being so few active members?

The Historian
Just gathering facts
for posterity.

Pretty good prognosticating huh?  Actually, that was the date of the first contest.  I just keep updating that entry each month rather than creating new ones.

[SenorPablo]

NewGuy - 1/3/2008  6:20 PM

Nice! Thanks for the history brief Paul. Can you imagine the five year forecast?

Rack

It should be interesting in 5 years.  I really can't imagine.  I just hope we keep the same vibe.

[SenorPablo]

ljlemer - 1/3/2008  8:34 PM

I can. Sit down. This isn't pretty. Cigargeeks is huge, members overflowing, cigar passes take 6 months to finish, people barely know each other, the database is bursting with entries, it's run by volunteers. Paul is burnt out but still oversees. Success has ruined the original cameraderie, but now there are so many members that Paul rakes in a second income selling advertising space on the website. Pop-ups interefere with every page and in 5 years they're smart enough to fool any blocker. By then my wife has forced me to quit smoking and I've drifted off. We're still in Iraq. Petroleum is $1200 a barrel. The dollar is nearly worthless and the National Debt is being called in by foreign banks. The country is in foreclosure. Membership in Cigargeeks is $25 a month, but that's only 25 cents in 2008 dollars. Cigars are taxed at 300%. Smoking in your own home is illegal.
You can only smoke outside 100 feet away from another human being. Even two smokers can't smoke together because of secondhand smoke. The winning lottery number on this date in 2013 is 596267074. You can stand up now.

Holy crap!  Thats a very gloomy forecast.   Although a second income would be nice to offset the gas prices at $1200 a barrel!  

[NewGuy]

Remember you heard it here first! Woe is us  

Or maybe: We grow in camaraderie and take the noobs under our wing for some soft conformity lessons and grow on discipling disciples. Then our numbers ensure the best contacts for overtaxed cigars and we have a whopper of a tea party at the Chesapeake Bay in honor of our founder. The gov't takes heed and adds a cigar to the talons of our national symbol. Long live the stick. Mean while our then board of directors works out a smokes for oil deal with OPEC and gas prices plummet. From there we reverse global warming and negate the effects of el Nino. Ahhhhhhh, what to smoke, eh?

Rack

[ljlemer]

NewGuy - 1/3/2008  10:34 PM

Remember you heard it here first! Woe is us  

Or maybe: We grow in camaraderie and take the noobs under our wing for some soft conformity lessons and grow on discipling disciples. Then our numbers ensure the best contacts for overtaxed cigars and we have a whopper of a tea at the Chesapeake Bay in honor of our founder. The gov't takes heed and adds a cigar to the talons of our national symbol. Long live the stick. Mean while our then board of directors works out a smokes for oil deal with OPEC and gas prices plummet. From there we reverse global warming and negate the effects of el Nino. Ahhhhhhh, what to smoke, eh?

Rack

Cigar smoke contributes to global warming. We need to grow more tobacco to offset it.

[NewGuy]

Oh yes, and the Cigar Geeks tobacco farms in each of the countries hosting our favorite wrappers.

Rack

[mhuss]

ljlemer - 1/3/2008  8:34 PM
You can stand up now.

And you can take a breath now!  Wow, what a forecast.  But unfortunately, you're probably right on a couple of those predictions, namely the cost of a barrel of oil and the pitiful worth of the US dollar.  But I certainly hope NewGuy's predictions come true!