British/EU forum
- Thread starter VDL_Piper
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Don't think there's a forum over this side of the pond (UK), at least I haven't come across one but happy to be proved wrong. I'm guessing that we don't have the numbers to make it worth the effort. Others I dip into are Pipe Smoker's Den, The Briar Patch, and Brothers Of Briar. All are great resources and worth checking out. None of this parochial b*ll*cks makes any sense to me.
Nothing I've seen. I'm not sure what the demographic in the UK is, nowadays. Bunch of codgers slowly losing our grip, probably, although I suspect from "top seller" lists at the main online retailers that there's a hidden cohort who love heavily flavored tobacco - possibly among the immigrant population from the Indian subcontinent and those who like shish? Shish bars were taking over Edgeware Road in London twenty years ago when indoor smoking suddenly got the chop, it was going big and then killed.
Contrary to popular believe ,Pipe smoking in France is still quite strong
Pipegazette.com
Pipegazette.com
are you blocked from any other site than STG’s? I am no. And I easily access even those three sites with a VPN
there are german, french, italian forums, all easily found with google
Personally I don't know of any pipe forums that are primarily European. There's a forum on Reddit, there's pipesmokersdens.com, and pipesmokersforums.com, but they're all of a message board type, with nothing like the sustained discussion or depth or camaraderie we get here and don't look very inviting to me.
No site ofther than tobaccoreviews.com has blocked me. I think it was an extremely stupid and shortsighted thing for STG to have done because thanks to that site I've actually purchased STG blends I wouldn't otherwise have. And what is a Danish company doing, blocking all non-American customers anyway?
I don't think we can conflate this phenomenon with the Fortress America or America First ideology that's getting so much airtime and bandwidth at the moment, but I will suggest is that there is nothing stopping the rest of us Anglophones globally from setting up something similar ourselves, should such an evil day come (and of course Americans would be welcome too as long as their government doesn't decree it to be an un-American activity). To which end, we might, for instance, make a preparatory start by exchanging email addresses by DM.
No site ofther than tobaccoreviews.com has blocked me. I think it was an extremely stupid and shortsighted thing for STG to have done because thanks to that site I've actually purchased STG blends I wouldn't otherwise have. And what is a Danish company doing, blocking all non-American customers anyway?
I don't think we can conflate this phenomenon with the Fortress America or America First ideology that's getting so much airtime and bandwidth at the moment, but I will suggest is that there is nothing stopping the rest of us Anglophones globally from setting up something similar ourselves, should such an evil day come (and of course Americans would be welcome too as long as their government doesn't decree it to be an un-American activity). To which end, we might, for instance, make a preparatory start by exchanging email addresses by DM.
I don't care what the government says. I don't need a ruler, because I rule.
Government and law just dictates what activities I hide, not whether or not I do them.
"It's not a crime unless you get caught."
I don’t know of any other English-language pipe and tobacco websites, but I have not looked for any. If the largest market for them is the US (and I am not sure that it is, but for English language speakers it must be) they may direct their marketing to support their e-commerce and distribution to retailers in the US. I would consider a website like tobaccoreviews to be a marketing line-item. If they block access from outside the US, then they probably avoid any concern about EU or other international data privacy regulations and laws. Or EU/UK tobacco marketing/advertising regulations? They need not comply or ensure compliance with costly tools or audits, etc. I do not know anything about this, just wild guessing. I understand misterbadger becoming aware of other (STG) brands and purchasing them (from presumably a non-US source). They must realise that too, so giving that up must have a reason. So there will be some other business money reason for the blocking. Right?
Anyway, it’s a website with dubious usefulness or devotion. Most of us go to it from time to time, simply to have an organised place to see what’s new. I found some entertainment there on more than one occasion. But if it goes away, well, scratch, yawn, look around, and carry on.
Not having a clue, here is what AI (Bing Copilot) estimates the costs to establish and run a special interest website.
Initial Setup Costs:
- Website Setup and Initial Costs: £1,696 - £8,920 (€2,035 - €10,520)
- GDPR Compliance Costs: £11,000 - £36,000 (€13,200 - €43,200)
Annual Running Costs:
- Website Maintenance and Running Costs: £786 - £3,900 (€945 - €4,600)
- Ongoing GDPR Compliance Costs: This is included in initial setup, but occasional audits and updates may cost approximately £1,000 - £5,000 (€1,200 - €6,000) annually.
For what it’s worth. Whatever.
I searched but never found a "decent" forum like this.
One of the three main market for Mac Baren with US and Germany. So yes it is. After all that’s where briar pipe were born.
Any other free and English speaking forums Ive found were pretty inactive.
Personally, given that the net is worldwide I dont see any major advantage in having one that is "Local". There are plenty of people here from the EU as well as GB. If people would at least list their country of origin it would make for a less confusing arean, especially when asking advice. However, when you bring up that topic people get all fussy about their imagined privacy.
Personally, given that the net is worldwide I dont see any major advantage in having one that is "Local". There are plenty of people here from the EU as well as GB. If people would at least list their country of origin it would make for a less confusing arean, especially when asking advice. However, when you bring up that topic people get all fussy about their imagined privacy.
I enjoyed the French forum many years ago. It gave me the opportunity to brush up on my French skills. I was always better at written French than spoken. But, after a while it gets old trying to decipher whether someone is joking. just being an asshole, or is just using a very bad translator from some other language.
STG’s restrictions on Tobaccoreviews is purely legal and cautionary until they can figure out the euro regulations and their liability.
I am shocked at the regulatory hurdles to commerce erected by Germany. Holy shit. Here in the US, I can start a web page for free. If I want e-commerce, the cost to the internet host and provider goes up, but still very affordable. Government approval would be a simple business license and sales tax number. I could have a forum with advertising up and looking good in a few days.
I am shocked at the regulatory hurdles to commerce erected by Germany. Holy shit. Here in the US, I can start a web page for free. If I want e-commerce, the cost to the internet host and provider goes up, but still very affordable. Government approval would be a simple business license and sales tax number. I could have a forum with advertising up and looking good in a few days.
Fumeurs de Pipe? I'm subscribed to that one, but my interest in translating French waxes and wanes.
For what it's worth, I don't consider this forum or PSD to be "American" forums just because they're based in the US. The same goes for TR, but TR is a different thing altogether, and a big corporation now owning for sure will cause some issues while they get their ducks in a row.
As to why it takes so long... buying a business I would imagine is a pretty complex process. You have to figure out subsidiaries, what each is doing which subsidiaries have contracts where, value assets and a plethora of other things.
Honestly, 6 months or whatever it's been isn't that long considering all the crap they have to do, I'm not surprised. TR is probably on the back burner for STG. I wouldn't doubt if it was a little bit before it was opened back up globally (if at all).
Not to bootlick STG (I don't hate big corporations, but I'm also not a fan of them and not a supporter of neoliberal economics), but you can't really blame them for this, there's only so many people and so much to do with their acquisition of MB/Sutliff. Just inspecting TR for legal compliance with 5, 10, whatever number of countries might take some time and money, never mind that "the board" of a big corporation like that is also going to want to inspect whether or not it's worth even keeping for them before bothering to spend the time and money to bring it to compliance.
I wouldn't put anything on it being anything to do with preferencing Americans or the current political climate of the USA.
As to why it takes so long... buying a business I would imagine is a pretty complex process. You have to figure out subsidiaries, what each is doing which subsidiaries have contracts where, value assets and a plethora of other things.
Honestly, 6 months or whatever it's been isn't that long considering all the crap they have to do, I'm not surprised. TR is probably on the back burner for STG. I wouldn't doubt if it was a little bit before it was opened back up globally (if at all).
Not to bootlick STG (I don't hate big corporations, but I'm also not a fan of them and not a supporter of neoliberal economics), but you can't really blame them for this, there's only so many people and so much to do with their acquisition of MB/Sutliff. Just inspecting TR for legal compliance with 5, 10, whatever number of countries might take some time and money, never mind that "the board" of a big corporation like that is also going to want to inspect whether or not it's worth even keeping for them before bothering to spend the time and money to bring it to compliance.
I wouldn't put anything on it being anything to do with preferencing Americans or the current political climate of the USA.
I just would like to have a hege against being completely shut out (should it ever happen). Based on my experience so far it's done without warning and quick. Better to know and not need than need and not know.
I concur, but PipesMagazine really is American, just by the fact that the majority of people posting here are American, and the official language is American English. We do tolerate the Brit's spelling issues (I'm pronouncing that "iss-youse"), but only because we stopped haboring resentment late last year for the unpleasantness of 1776 and 1812.
Kicking their ass and then having to save it a couple times did get bothersome.