It is kinda weird - this whole interacting online I mean.
Most businesses, including the cigar one, do NOT interact directly online with consumers in an uncontrolled environment because it's a f'ing nightmare.
Over-adulation is bad because it makes some folks despise you even though you got nothing to do with the accolades others post.
There are a few haters who tear at you at every chance they can get. They actually get a boner trying to stick you in the eye.
And trying to walk that line between being informative vs. being perceived as just posting to get folks money is really impossible.
The end result is very, very few companies or principals of companies post online.
And can you blame them? It really is a no win scenario.
Over the years I have seen some really great company guys who were the most devoted posters eventually get tired of getting their teeth kicked in, so they stop.
The problem for me is I like to post online, I have always been a real cigar geek and I have been interacting in cigar forums, chats, etc. since about late 1993. Long before I worked for JR or was a partner and officer in DE.
And what I decided long ago was I was just going to continue posting honestly and forthright as myself and not really worry about people's opinions.
I try to keep the bullshit quotient down, I try to be respectful, and I try to contribute to any place I post by actually adding answers and threads to general cigar info not just company related stuff.
At the same time, when I don't agree with someone, I post so and don't really care if all the readers like my response, because they are not going to.
Of course I end up answering more DE related stuff these days just because that is what the original poster is looking for when they ask a DE related question. Some day I will retire and won't answer those questions anymore.
And maybe this does hurt business sometimes, but in the end I am who I am and I am going to keep doing what I do.
People are going to form their own opinions regardless of what I do.
Some folks think I am fantabulous, others think I am total dick.
Personally, I think the truth lies somewhere between the two.
BR,
STS
'and I am not a f'ing salesmen'