Rant: Cigar Bums

[Whipper Snapper]

If it were not for folks who gave generously, I doubt I'd be on these boards today. I started posting on cigar boards over 7 years ago. I was interested in the hobby, but it was the generosity of some fellows (one who posts here in fact) that not only plunged me into the hobby, but gave me more of a reason to be here than to just talk about cigars.

I've had the opportunity to try cigars that I didn't even know existed 7 years ago, thanks to people who cared enough to give a noob a shot.

Now, I just so happen to know a little bit about the cigar world when I used to know nothing, and I don't think that would have been possible had generous people not shared their cigars/knowledge with me.

Nobody likes a mooch. But, sometimes moochers are really just people who don't know where to start. It's full circle really. Give a newbie some cigars to try, and 10 years down the road, he might just be giving you that dunhill you never dreamed of owning.

What a wonderful place we have here at the asylum.

[markem]

I'm sure that most, if not all, of us know or know about some one person who seems to freeload off other people's stashes. I think that is the type of person the OP was posting about, although it is clear that others in this thread are painting a wider brush.

I see no reason to start a thread over that one aberration of a person. Tell the person 'no' and move on with your life. Complaining about the one person just makes you miserable. Let it go and move on. Don't worry about their behavior if it isn't directed at you - you can't play mother hen to the entire world.

Let's let this thing die and move on to other topics, like who has received the most touching stick from a friend or stranger and why was it so. I doubt that most of the stories would include rare sticks, but who knows. Many here know about the time I gave a rather run of the mill stick to someone who was homeless and it reminded him of better days and took away the pain of his circumstances for a while, or so he told me. Let's focus on the good in both us and those around us, m'kay?

[OLS]

Originally Posted by Tecnorobo

I started posting on cigar boards over 7 years ago..

You might have been the first mooching noob, and I mean that in the most respectful way.
I can remember when you popped in and jumped in with both feet. Even though the other place
was not as completely, overwhelmingly generous as THIS place is, I think you had no idea that people
were going to hit you the way they did. You were just curious and broke, as I recall. I did not send
anything to you, but I remember it well. Your avatar made me chuckle everytime I saw it.
I think it all started with a couple "I never had one of those." 'es. Talk about the birthplace of the bomb.

I may be mis-remembering the facts, but I remember the time and place and the shavetail young whipper-
snapper. I think people could diffrentiate you from a garden-variety mooch, so you were OK.

[Whipper Snapper]

Originally Posted by OLS

You might have been the first mooching noob, and I mean that in the most respectful way.
I can remember when you popped in and jumped in with both feet. Even though the other place
was not as completely, overwhelmingly generous as THIS place is, I think you had no idea that people
were going to hit you the way they did. You were just curious and broke, as I recall. I did not send
anything to you, but I remember it well. Your avatar made me chuckle everytime I saw it.
I think it all started with a couple "I never had one of those." 'es. Talk about the birthplace of the bomb.

I may be mis-remembering the facts, but I remember the time and place and the shavetail young whipper-
snapper. I think people could diffrentiate you from a garden-variety mooch, so you were OK.

After reading all of this, I hope the term "mooching-noob" isn't synonymous with "mooch" or "purobrat". Thankfully, I had the opportunity to bomb some of the farts responsible for a majority of the mayhem (Cough *Smitty/Paulmac* cough). One things for certain- I had absolutely NO IDEA I'd get pummeled the way I did back at the other place.

Motheman, Icehog, Smitty, Frank and Anita (Floydp), IHT (now curly cut) and Coppertop. I'm sure there were others whom I've forgotten, and for that I'm sorry. They sure did beat the snot out of me though.

I think the worst of it all was the constant torment I received from Paulmac and Smitty via aim/pm's. The two of them insisted that there would be a time where impending doom would rain down upon my head. Apparently they had arranged some mass bombing that would've included half the forum or something. Thankfully, that never took place. I don't deserve a carpet bombing.

Bottom line is, I hope a few years down the road, I'm able to return the favor to someone as ignorant as I was.