Do Tobacco Professionals Read Us?
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I already posted my view on this, but to further elaborate, I find it objectively incomprehensible, in the context of the internet as a whole, that anyone could get the impression that the members of this forum treat each other (or anyone else) disrespectfully. A huge chunk of interaction on the internet is essentially flame war between users, taking into account websites like reddit and the now-defunct comments sections that used to be included on a lot of major news sites.
Forum members here might disagree, but for the most part, the disagreements here are expressed in a reasoned manner without personal insult. Basically, if this forum qualifies as "impolite", then the rest of the internet is chock full of uncivilized savages.
Forum members here might disagree, but for the most part, the disagreements here are expressed in a reasoned manner without personal insult. Basically, if this forum qualifies as "impolite", then the rest of the internet is chock full of uncivilized savages.
Uh, I think the thread is about anonymous business oriented use of the Forums. Doesn't sound like a romance to me. I agree with lawdawg that this is a remarkably civilized tiny corner of the internet that is otherwise in a large part absolutely psychiatric in its menace and hostility. This is the exception. Most of the action on the net is exhibit one for the desperate need of mental health professionals at every level of society and every region of the nation and the world. The populace isn't well. For the most part on Forums, the members are endeavoring to act well, whatever our status may be.
Very well said.
The problem is butthurt. It runs rampant with those higher ups.
If you aren’t blindly praising or suckling their teets for info then you are an enemy. Anything they do is just fine and you better damn well like it.
If people have been impolite to the rockstar blenders who occasionally post here I sure haven't seen it. The biggest fights I've seen here haven't had anything to do with pipes or tobacco. It's usually social issues or political topics.
For most people here, reading/posting to the forum is basically disposable time. The difference for professionals is it's their work. Posting here is essentially making a public statement about their business. It's like sending an email to a client. They need to be guarded and somewhat cautious and can't just fuck around like the rest of us might.
For most people here, reading/posting to the forum is basically disposable time. The difference for professionals is it's their work. Posting here is essentially making a public statement about their business. It's like sending an email to a client. They need to be guarded and somewhat cautious and can't just fuck around like the rest of us might.
Right. Or when someone does take a small dig at them they can’t really act offended or flame back as that looks quite poorly on them. They have to respectfully respond and speak their peace without sounding “dickish” in their response.
we have that luxury that they do not ?
being on here would basically be like a nonstop customer-service/PR campaign.
It's unfortunate that we see less commentary from the blenders. I took part in the G.L. Pease tasting group that was on this forum years ago. Greg picked out several blends and if I remember right smoking pipes made a package deal for us. We tried a blend per month and got to discus it here with Greg. Ah, the good old days.
There is no doubt that language and the endeavors it has spawned, from the arts to science and technology, has provided the base for doing so. It is language that allows its arts, reading, writing, speaking and thinking.
But people no longer have the largess of self-actualizatiuoln to practice those arts. My first reacton was my last post as it's lonely and very frustrating to have skills that I can share with virtually no one. But if I think about the reason why stupidity reigns I find them in the thoughts in this post.
So all-right, people are doing the best they can with what they have. But no doubt their best sucks eggs.
But people no longer have the largess of self-actualizatiuoln to practice those arts. My first reacton was my last post as it's lonely and very frustrating to have skills that I can share with virtually no one. But if I think about the reason why stupidity reigns I find them in the thoughts in this post.
So all-right, people are doing the best they can with what they have. But no doubt their best sucks eggs.
To be fair, many of you commenting about this haven't been around here for very long. So you haven't been around to witness some of the witless behavior that past members, banned with very good cause, have indulged in here. One gone and unlamented former member challenged a highly respected blender's description of what was in the blend under discussion, insisting that the blend had vanilla in it. The autust member basically insisted that the blender didn't know what he was doing. And we've had some real meltdowns here. It's not a large percentage of what happens here, which is largely civil discourse, but it doesn't take much inanity discourage professionals from getting more actively engaged.
I haven’t read every word of every post on this thread, but I know the following to be true from personal contacts with “pros” who outrank the typical marketing guys who call on shops:
(1) They make mistakes
(2) Such mistakes, given even balls to the wall priority to try to correct them, take time to rectify
(3) Lead times in this industry are what they are, and a real screwup in, say, packaging on an imported product, might take 4-6 months to fully resolve
(4) Every single time I have mentioned to one of my friends in the industry that “you’re getting killed on (Insert a forum or Facebook group of your choice) because of issue x” they have already been aware of the buzz
(5) For whatever reason, many seem to think that responding on social media isn’t as productive a use of their time as rolling up their sleeves and trying to do a better job going forward. Smaller players can be, and often are, an exception to this, but time is an issue even for them and they seem to have learned to pick and choose their spots.
(6) Our little corner of the nicotine world is by no means isolated from larger trends in the industry. A major worldwide leaf processor just filed Chapter 11
(7) Things that might have, at least in the eyes of those of us smokers who could also be called hobbyists, justified and received an “all hands on deck” response in the past, simply won’t in this environment, even pre Covid.
No real heavy philosophy or armchair psychology required, nor is there any particular need to be overly sympathetic to an industry that has, in at least some measure in my view, brought many of its problems on itself.
(1) They make mistakes
(2) Such mistakes, given even balls to the wall priority to try to correct them, take time to rectify
(3) Lead times in this industry are what they are, and a real screwup in, say, packaging on an imported product, might take 4-6 months to fully resolve
(4) Every single time I have mentioned to one of my friends in the industry that “you’re getting killed on (Insert a forum or Facebook group of your choice) because of issue x” they have already been aware of the buzz
(5) For whatever reason, many seem to think that responding on social media isn’t as productive a use of their time as rolling up their sleeves and trying to do a better job going forward. Smaller players can be, and often are, an exception to this, but time is an issue even for them and they seem to have learned to pick and choose their spots.
(6) Our little corner of the nicotine world is by no means isolated from larger trends in the industry. A major worldwide leaf processor just filed Chapter 11
(7) Things that might have, at least in the eyes of those of us smokers who could also be called hobbyists, justified and received an “all hands on deck” response in the past, simply won’t in this environment, even pre Covid.
No real heavy philosophy or armchair psychology required, nor is there any particular need to be overly sympathetic to an industry that has, in at least some measure in my view, brought many of its problems on itself.
I'm not sure what's prompting your lament... here in a thread about tobacco professionals. But for what it's worth I believe I know how you feel. What you're describing is exactly how I felt when I got out of grad school. It took me a very a long time to adjust and to decompress after being surrounded by so many super-educated and interesting people. The regular world seemed utterly dull and populated by people who didn't read much and didn't care about ideas or philosophy. It made me bitter for a while. It was a peak moment in my life and there hasn't been anything like it since.
If I were a tobacco professional,I would check in on occasion,just as one way of keeping a finger on the pulse of the smokers.
That's what I'd do, as a pro, which isn't going to happen in this lifetime. I'd check out Forums over a year or so, and if I found it useful as a customer focus group, which would require a lot of quick scanning for only the key points I was researching, I'd just keep checking and not join, not participate, but merely read it for my points of interest. From that perspective, I'd rather hear what members were saying to each other than engage in discussion and debate. Once you get invested in opinions, you don't listen to others, usually.
captainsousie said:
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
I like it! Reason number 459 why not to aspire but instead remain aground in defense of piles of chicken bones left by a horde of rabid picnickers who descended on the once verdant grove on the recent holiday. They talked trash nonstop for six hours and swilled cheap beer, got pig-drunk and and drifted off in twos into the shrubbery for advanced maneuvers, not leaving until dark but leaving the piles of the aforementioned bones.
What pigs! who nonetheless struck the great gong of freedom in the cause of Notcleaning!
Think of it. If there is a pile of dirt on then linoleum, but it is not in your path, ignore it. If in your path, push it out of the way with your foot. In either case you go to joy by exercising your God-given right to practice Notcleaning. If anybody f*cks with you, whip out the appropriate statute of the Notcleaning manifesto written by Methuselah P. Jenkins who yet lives in Barstow, producing it faster than a gun enthusiast substantiates the Second Amendment. Defend yourself!
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
I like it! Reason number 459 why not to aspire but instead remain aground in defense of piles of chicken bones left by a horde of rabid picnickers who descended on the once verdant grove on the recent holiday. They talked trash nonstop for six hours and swilled cheap beer, got pig-drunk and and drifted off in twos into the shrubbery for advanced maneuvers, not leaving until dark but leaving the piles of the aforementioned bones.
What pigs! who nonetheless struck the great gong of freedom in the cause of Notcleaning!
Think of it. If there is a pile of dirt on then linoleum, but it is not in your path, ignore it. If in your path, push it out of the way with your foot. In either case you go to joy by exercising your God-given right to practice Notcleaning. If anybody f*cks with you, whip out the appropriate statute of the Notcleaning manifesto written by Methuselah P. Jenkins who yet lives in Barstow, producing it faster than a gun enthusiast substantiates the Second Amendment. Defend yourself!
Oh dear, has someone been in the cleaning fluid again? ?
Wow. Yeah I could see that becoming fairly tiring. Especially arguing about something that obviously the blender is going to know.
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