I think we *all* need to calm down and light a pipe. It's just not worth it to expend our energy on petty BS; as they say, haters gonna hate. A (very) wise man once told me:
Let (them) spin (their) wheels and burn up all of (their) resources, while we just burn tobacco.
Bob and Paul have their reasons for leaving - even if you or I don't agree with them, is it really our place to shoot them down for it? Certainly, it seems that has been done to some folk here, but I would like to think that we are all adult enough to play the bigger men. We all know that they have both (Bob and Paul) gone through some pretty intense shit in their real-lives over the past few months; perhaps it would behoove us to offer them some benefit of doubt based on being overstressed.
Certainly, some of the practices seem rather questionable - but often on the corporate side, things of this nature take care of themselves as word gets around (and with a niche market as small as ours, word will get around); while on the community side (forums), farming simply invites cliquish dissention.
PipesMagazine.com is "The Number One Source for Pipes and Pipe Tobacco Information" indeed, with pretty much every article re-posted by net-savvy pipe-smokers on pretty much every website to do with tobacco (including PSU). Access to industry types certainly has a huge hand in this - and with that access goes trust. Trust in PipesMagazine.com; trust in Right-Click Media LLC; and most importantly, trust in Kevin. This didn't develop overnight, but rather over a period of years, through proven business practices. This has allowed Kevin several opportunities to "launch" blends, tour factories, and of course, have full and unprecidented access to blenders, producers, and distributers; not to mention pipe-carvers and factories. For this reason, I wouldn't worry about the quality of content here falling off, while PSU Magazine improves.
Well, other than my column. Damn hack. :D
:
